English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Global: Zendy Free Plan

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

Unicellular eukaryotes have pivotal ecological roles in aquatic ecosystems by participating in biogeochemical processes and structuring microbial food webs. However, revealing their biogeographical patterns remains challenging, as it is reflected in the rather limited available knowledge. In this study, two central patterns, the taxa–area and the distance–decay relationships, were tested for freshwater unicellular eukaryotes. Sampling was performed in 31 mountainous freshwater ecosystems in Thessaly (Greece). Sampling sites had different geohydromorphological characteristics (altitude, 124–704 m; depth, 0.3–1 m; surface area, 188–123 000 m2; geographical distances, 0.03–48.4 km). Unicellular eukaryote diversity was assessed by 18S rRNA gene diversity with high-throughput sequencing. Five supergroups (Stramenopiles, Alveolata, Rhizaria, Archaeplastida and Opisthokonta) were found with the most abundant taxa being Stramenopiles and Alveolata. Aquatic unicellular eukaryotes showed statistically significant but weak DDR and TAR. This can be attributed to the large proportion of specialists (91.9% of operational taxonomic units according to Levin’s index). These results indicate that although mountainous pools and ponds can host high diversity of unicellular eukaryotes, the shaping of their communities is mainly regulated by niche-specific processes and environmental filtering and to a lesser extent by species dispersion processes.

Taxa–area and distance–decay relationships of unicellular eukaryotes along an elevation gradient of mountainous freshwater ecosystems