Protist taxonomic and functional diversity in soil, freshwater and marine ecosystems

SINGER D; SEPPEY CCW; LENTENDU G; DUNTHORN M; BASS D; BELBAHRI L; BLANDENIER Q; DEBROAS D; DE GROOT A; DE VARGAS C; DOMAIZON I; DUCKERT C; IZAGUIRRE I.; KOENIG I; MATALONI G; SCHIAFFINO, M., R., UNREIN, F., MASSANA, R., GASOL, J., FARIAS, M.E., ESTEVEZ, C., BALAGUÉ, V., IZAGUIRRE, I.; MITCHELL EAD; GEISEN S; LARA E

ENVIRONMENT INTERNATIONAL

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2021 vol. 146 p. 1 - 8

0160-4120

Protists dominate eukaryotic diversity and play key functional roles in all ecosystems, particularly by catalyzing carbon and nutrient cycling. To date, however, a comparative analysis of their taxonomic and functional di- versity that compares the major ecosystems on Earth (soil, freshwater and marine systems) is missing. Here, we present a comparison of protist diversity based on standardized high throughput 18S rRNA gene sequencing of soil, freshwater and marine environmental DNA. Soil and freshwater protist communities were more similar to each other than to marine protist communities, with virtually no overlap of Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs) between terrestrial and marine habitats. Soil protists showed higher γ diversity than aquatic samples. Differences in taxonomic composition of the communities led to changes in a functional diversity among ecosystems, as expressed in relative abundance of consumers, phototrophs and parasites. Phototrophs (eukaryotic algae) dominated freshwater systems (49% of the sequences) and consumers soil and marine ecosystems (59% and 48%, respectively). The individual functional groups were composed of ecosystem- specific taxonomic groups.