Geographic distance and mountain ranges structure freshwater protist communities on a European scalе

By

Boenigk, Jens
Wodniok, Sabina
Bock, Christina
Beisser, Daniela
Hempel, Christopher
Grossmann, Lars
Lange, Anja
Jensen, Manfred

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2018-1-2

Original Publication

Metabarcoding and metagenomics

Volume

2

Pages

1--14

Subjects

Algae , Biogeography , Microbial ecology , Molecular diversity , protist

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers 2017-

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/mbmg.2.21519

 

Abstract

Protists influence ecosystems by modulating microbial population size, diversity, metabolic outputs and gene flow. In this study we used eukaryotic ribosomal amplicon diversity from 218 European freshwater lakes sampled in August 2012 to assess the effect of mountain ranges as biogeographic barriers on spatial patterns and microbial community structure in European freshwaters. The diversity of microbial communities as reflected by amplicon clusters suggested that the eukaryotic microbial inventory of lakes was well-sampled at the European and at the local scale. Our pan-European diversity analysis indicated that biodiversity and richness of high mountain lakes differed from that of lowland lakes. Further, the taxon inventory of high-mountain lakes strongly contributed to beta-diversity despite a low taxon inventory. Even though ecological factors, in general, strongly affect protist community pattern, we show that geographic distance and geographic barriers significantly contribute to community composition particularly for high mountain regions which presumably act as biogeographic islands. However, community composition in lowland lakes was also affected by geographic distance but less pronounced as in high mountain regions. In consequence protist populations are locally structured into distinct biogeographic provinces and community analyses revealed biogeographic patterns also for lowland lakes whereby European mountain ranges act as dispersal barriers in particular for short to intermediate distances whereas the effect of mountain ranges levels off on larger scale.