High and specific diversity of protists in the deep-sea basins dominated by diplonemids, kinetoplastids, ciliates and foraminiferans

Abstract

Alexandra Schoenle et al. use DNA metabarcoding and cultivation-based surveys of 11 regions in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans encompassing the bathyal, abyssal, and hadal zones to identify the role of deep-sea heterotrophic protists relative to other trophic levels. Their results demonstrate that protistan species richness was locally specific and greater than that of metazoans and that measured in pelagic samples, and that deep-sea protist communities are relatively distinct from their pelagic counterparts.