Biodiversity and seasonality of the whole community of planktic protists in the epilimnetic layer of a large and deep perialpine lake (Lake Garda) (HTS methods; MiSeq).

This study examined the biodiversity and seasonality of the whole community of planktic protists in the epilimnetic layer of a large and deep perialpine lake (Lake Garda) using HTS. The analyses were carried out at monthly frequency during 2014 and 2015. The results highlighted the existence of a rich and well diversified community and the existence of numerous phytoplankton taxa that were never identified by light microscopy (LM) in previous investigations.