Community response of planktic and benthic microorganisms to anthropogenic pressures and the applicability of DNA metabarcoding in the ecological status assessment of lakes

Our project studies the effect of anthropogenic stressors or other environmental variables on lake ecosystems through the analysis of planktic and benthic microbial communities. We study how these stressors affect the composition, diversity and co-occurrences of algae, bacteria and fungi assemblages. The methodological aspect of the project explores the advantages of DNA metabarcoding compared to conventional methodology in identifying communities of microorganisms, their hidden diversity and potential standardisation of the method. Our data is going to be complemented with those from international cooperations in order to develop DNA-based metrics to optimise ecological status assessment within the European Water Framework Directive.