Data from: Short term dynamics of diversity patterns: evidence of continual reassembly within lacustrine small eukaryotes

The short-term variation in the community structure of freshwater small
eukaryotes (0.2-5 μm) was investigated in a mesotrophic lake every 2-3
days over one summer by coupling three molecular methods: 454 amplicon
pyrosequencing, qPCR and TSA-FISH. The pyrosequencing approach unveiled a
much more extensive small-eukaryotic diversity (991 OTUs) than has been
described previously. The vast majority of the diversity described was
represented by rare OTUs (≤ 0.01% of reads) belonging primarily to
Cryptomycota, Dikarya and photosynthetic organisms, which were never
detected as abundant in any of the samples. The small eukaryote community
was characterized by a continual and important reassembly. These
rearrangements involved the 20 “core taxa” (≥ 1% of reads), and, were
essentially due to a handful of OTUs that were detected in intermediate
abundance (0.01-1% of reads) and sporadically in dominant taxa. Putative
bacterivorous (Ciliophora and Cercozoa) as well as parasitic and
saprotrophic taxa (Perkinsozoa and Cryptomycota) were involved in these
changes of diversity. A putative infection of microalgae by a lacustrine
perkinsozoan was also reported for the first time in this study. Open
questions regarding both the patterns that govern the rapid small
eukaryote reassemblies and the possible biogeography of these organisms
arise from this study.