engleski

Phytoplankton functional classification and eDNA metabarcoding for biomonitoring assessment of karstic lakes

Environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding has been widely used and compared with the traditional morphological approach to be introduced as a reliable tool for biomonitoring assessment. Phytoplankton samples were collected from April to September in seven Croatian natural karstic lakes to compare the ecological status obtained by the morphological and eDNA metabarcoding approaches. The Hungarian Lake Phytoplankton Indeks (HLPI) was calculated using biomass and composition metrics for both eDNA metabarcoding (V9 region of 18S rRNA) and morphological approaches (Utermöhl method). Similar ecological requirements and favourable habitats for different functional groups (FGs) in lakes influenced the assignment of similar or the same factor number to FGs. This resulted in high correlation of HLPI values calculated using both approaches, regardless of differences in taxonomic and FG composition and proportions. Most differences in the ecological status were also found due to different methods of chlorophyll-a analysis. Although comparable results were obtained for ecological status assessment using the V9 region of 18S rRNA, the differences in phytoplankton composition indicated the need for further development and standardization for implementation in routine monitoring.

Hungarian Lake Phytoplankton Index, Utermöhl method, 18S rRNA V9, Chlorophyll a, Croatian natural karst lakes

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