Identifying protists along the Agder coastline using Illumina sequencing

Environmental quality, sustainability and functioning of marine ecosystems are closely linked to species richness and diversity. Microalgae play key roles in coastal ecosystems contributing significantly to carbon flux through the microbial loop and are the main suppliers of photosynthetic products that higher trophic levels of the marine food web depend upon. The Norwegian coastal water is a mixture of freshwater run-off from rivers, outflow of brackish water from the Baltic Sea through the Kattegat, and North Sea coastal water. This produces a low-saline coastal water which mixes in the north with Atlantic water and this forms the Norwegian coastal current (NCC). In this study, we determi…