Analysis of protistan communities from the Mediterranean Sea. Hotmix 18S sequences from the Mediterranean Sea

The Mediterranean Sea is a miniature ocean divided by the Sicily Strait into two basins with a marked west to east trophic gradient, and separated of the nearby Eastern Atlantic Ocean by the Strait of Gibraltar. All these orographic features provide physical and environmental barriers that reduce water mass mixing in the bathypelagic. Here we investigate whether these barriers favour the development of specific protistan assemblages both in the vertical and horizontal spatial scales.