RT info:eu-repo/semantics/article
T1 Epiphytic Diatom-Based Biomonitoring in Mediterranean Ponds: Traditional Microscopy versus Metabarcoding Approaches
A1 Borrego Ramos, María
A1 Bécares Mantecón, Eloy
A1 García García, Pedro
A1 Nistal García, Alejandro
A1 Blanco Lanza, Saúl
A2 Genetica
K1 Ecología. Medio ambiente
K1 Genética
K1 Benthic diatoms
K1 DNA barcoding
K1 Ecological assessment
K1 Shallow pond
K1 2409.03 Genética de Poblaciones
K1 2417.13 Ecología Vegetal
K1 2417.14 Genética Vegetal
AB [EN] Benthic diatoms have traditionally been used as bioindicators of aquatic ecosystems. Because diatom-based monitoring of water quality is required by European legislation, molecular-based methods had emerged as useful alternatives to classical methods based on morphological identification using light microscopy. The aim of this study was to test the reliability of DNA metabarcoding combined with High-Throughput Sequencing (HTS) techniques in the bioassessment of the trophic status of 22 Mediterranean shallow ponds in NW Spain. For each pond, the Trophic Diatom Index (TDI) was calculated from inventories obtained by identification using light microscopy (LM) followed by high-throughput sequencing (HTS) at the molecular level. Ponds were subsequently classified into five water quality classes. The results showed a good correspondence between both methods, especially after applying a correction factor that depended on the biovolume of the cells. This correspondence led to the assignment to the same quality class in 59% of the ponds. The determination and quantification of valves or DNA sequences was one of the main pitfalls, which mainly included those related to the variability in the relative abundances of some species. Accordingly, ponds with similar relative abundances for the dominant species were assigned to the same quality class. Moreover, other difficulties leading the discrepancies were the misidentification of some species due to the presence of semi-cryptic taxa, the incompleteness of the reference database and the bioinformatic protocol. Thus, the validation of DNA-based methods for the identification of freshwater diatoms represents an important goal, as an alternative to using traditional methods in Mediterranean shallow ponds
PB MDPI
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10612/18085
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10612/18085
NO Borrego-Ramos, M., Bécares, E., García, P., Nistal, A., & Blanco, S. (2021). Epiphytic diatom-based biomonitoring in mediterranean ponds: Traditional microscopy versus metabarcoding approaches. Water (Switzerland), 13(10), Article e1351. https://doi.org/10.3390/W13101351
DS BULERIA. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de León
RD 17-may-2024