Responses of stream microbes to multiple anthropogenic stressors (salinization, fine sediment deposition and altered flow) in a mesocosm study

Stream ecosystems are exposed to diverse stressors introduced by several anthropogenic caused disturbances. Understanding the impact of these stressors is highly important for ecosystem conservation, however difficult to derive and to predict in commonly existing multi stressor environments. This task becomes even more difficult for generally understudied but functionally important groups which include microorganisms such as protists. To contribute to the closure of this knowledge gap, we conducted a stream mesocosm experiment, investigating single and multiple stressors, hereafter, reduced flow, fine sediment deposition and increased chloride concentration in a full factorial design.