Sedimentary Ancient DNA (sedaDNA) Reveals Fungal Diversity and Environmental Drivers of Community Changes throughout the Holocene in the Present Boreal Lake Lielais Svētiņu (Eastern Latvia)
Fungi are ecologically important in several ecosystem processes, yet their community composition, ecophysiological roles, and responses to changing environmental factors in historical sediments are rarely studied. Here we explored ancient fungal DNA from lake Lielais Svētiņu sediment throughout the Holocene (10.5 kyr) using the ITS metabarcoding approach. Our data revealed diverse fungal taxa and smooth community changes during most of the Holocene with rapid changes occurring in the last few millennia. More precisely, plankton parasitic fungi became more diverse from the Late Holocene (2–4 kyr) which could be related to a shift towards a cooler climate. The Latest Holocene (~2 kyr) showed …
From microbial eukaryotes to metazoan vertebrates: Wide spectrum paleo-diversity in sedimentary ancient DNA over the last ~14,500 years
Most studies that utilize ancient DNA have focused on specific groups of organisms or even single species. Instead, the whole biodiversity of eukaryotes can be described using universal phylogenetic marker genes found within well-preserved sediment cores that cover the post-glacial period. Sedimentary ancient DNA samples from Lake Lielais Svētiņu, eastern Latvia, at a core depth of 1,050 cm in ~150 year intervals were used to determine phylotaxonomy in domain Eukaryota. Phylotaxonomic affiliation of >1,200 eukaryotic phylotypes revealed high richness in all major eukaryotic groups-Alveolata, Stramenopiles, Cercozoa, Chlorophyta, Charophyta, Nucletmycea, and Holozoa. The share of organisms t…
Environmental drivers and abrupt changes of phytoplankton community in temperate lake Lielais Svētiņu, Eastern Latvia, over the last Post-Glacial period from 14.5 kyr
Understanding the long-term dynamics of ecological communities on the centuries-to-millennia scale is important for explaining the emergence of present-day biodiversity patterns and for predicting possible future scenarios. Fossil pigments and ancient DNA present in various sedimentary deposits can be analysed to study long-term changes in ecological communities. We analysed recent compilations of data, including fossil pigments, microfossils, and molecular inventories from the sedimentary archives, to understand the impact of gradual versus abrupt climate changes on the ecosystem status of a regional model lake over the last ~14.5 kyr. Such long and complete paleo-archives are scarce in No…
Drivers of change and ecosystem status in a temperate lake over the last Post-Glacial period from 14.5 kyr
AbstractUnderstanding the long-term dynamics of ecological communities on the centuries-to-millennia scale is important for explaining present-day biodiversity patterns. Placing these patterns in a historical context could yield reliable tools for predicting possible future scenarios. Paleoarchives of macro+ and micro-fossil remains, and most importantly biomarkers such as fossil pigments and ancient DNA present in various sedimentary deposits, allow long term changes in ecological communities to be analysed. We use recent compilations of data including fossil pigments, metabarcoding of sedimentary ancient DNA and microfossils together with data analysis to understand the impact of gradual …