Contrasting taxonomic stratification of microbial communities in two hypersaline meromictic lakes

Hypersaline meromictic lakes are extreme environments in which water stratification is associated with powerful physicochemical gradients and high salt concentrations. Furthermore, their physical stability coupled with vertical water column partitioning makes them important research model systems in microbial niche differentiation and biogeochemical cycling. Here, we compare the prokaryotic assemblages from Ursu and Fara Fund hypersaline meromictic lakes (Transylvanian Basin, Romania) in relation to their limnological factors and infer their role in elemental cycling by matching taxa to known taxon-specific biogeochemical functions. To assess the composition and structure of prokaryotic communities and the environmental factors that structure them, deep-coverage small subunit (SSU) ribosomal RNA (rDNA) amplicon sequencing, community domain-specific quantitative PCR and physicochemical analyses were performed on samples collected along depth profiles. The analyses showed that the lakes h...