Microbial community residing in the Ursu Lake (Transylvania, Romania)

This project aimed to investigate the spatial and temporal dynamics of the microbial community residing in Ursu Lake (Transylvania, Romania). Ursu Lake is a natural, heliothermal saline lake, that is permanently stratified. Based on the measured physical and chemical parameters (oxido-reduction potential, pH, salinity, dissolved oxygen, total nitrogen, total carbon) we detected three different compartments, the oxic and saline mixolimnion, the chemocline (tranzition zone) and the anoxic monimolimnion. The water samples were collected seasonally and by depth, from 0.5 m to 9 m (8 different depths). Biomass was concentrated by filtration onto 0.2 µm pore-MCE membranes, subsequently used for environmental DNA extraction