Diversity partitioning of protistan and fungal plankton communities in glacierfed turbid and clear high mountain lakes. freshwater metagenome

Climate change results in retreat of glaciers worldwide, resulting in a loss of connectivity of glaciers to high-mountain lakes. As a consequence, the environmental settings in these high mountain lakes change dramatically. Among others, particlerich turbid lakes turn into crystal clear lakes, exposing its inhabitants to extreme solar radiation, which is known as a strong selection factor for species sorting. In our study, we assess the effect of this scenario on microbial eukaryote plankton in high mountain lakes in the Himalaya and the Austrian Alps. This geographic range also allowed us to address basic questions in ecology regarding the dispersal capabilities of microbial eukaryotes across long distances. We not only advance our current knowledge on these subjects, but also stimulate further research in this scientific discipline.