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- Title
High and specific diversity of protists in the deep-sea basins dominated by diplonemids, kinetoplastids, ciliates and foraminiferans.
- Authors
Schoenle, Alexandra; Hohlfeld, Manon; Hermanns, Karoline; Mahé, Frédéric; de Vargas, Colomban; Nitsche, Frank; Arndt, Hartmut
- Abstract
Heterotrophic protists (unicellular eukaryotes) form a major link from bacteria and algae to higher trophic levels in the sunlit ocean. Their role on the deep seafloor, however, is only fragmentarily understood, despite their potential key function for global carbon cycling. Using the approach of combined DNA metabarcoding and cultivation-based surveys of 11 deep-sea regions, we show that protist communities, mostly overlooked in current deep-sea foodweb models, are highly specific, locally diverse and have little overlap to pelagic communities. Besides traditionally considered foraminiferans, tiny protists including diplonemids, kinetoplastids and ciliates were genetically highly diverse considerably exceeding the diversity of metazoans. Deep-sea protists, including many parasitic species, represent thus one of the most diverse biodiversity compartments of the Earth system, forming an essential link to metazoans. Alexandra Schoenle et al. use DNA metabarcoding and cultivation-based surveys of 11 regions in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans encompassing the bathyal, abyssal, and hadal zones to identify the role of deep-sea heterotrophic protists relative to other trophic levels. Their results demonstrate that protistan species richness was locally specific and greater than that of metazoans and that measured in pelagic samples, and that deep-sea protist communities are relatively distinct from their pelagic counterparts.
- Subjects
PROTISTA; SPECIES diversity; KINETOPLASTIDA; CILIATA; FORAMINIFERA
- Publication
Communications Biology, 2021, Vol 4, Issue 1, p1
- ISSN
2399-3642
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1038/s42003-021-02012-5