Heterotrophic protists are key components of marine ecosystems. They act as controllers of bacterial and microphytobenthos production and contribute significantly to the carbon flux to higher trophic levels. Still, metabarcoding studies on benthic protist communities are much less frequent than for planktonic organisms. Especially in the Baltic Sea, representing the largest brackish water environment on earth, so far, no extensive metabarcoding studies have been conducted to assess the diversity of benthic protists in this unique and diverse habitat. This study aims to give first insights into the diversity of benthic protist communities in two different regions of the Baltic Sea, Fehmarnbelt, and Oderbank. Using amplicon sequencing of the 18S rDNA V9 region of over 100 individual sediment samples, we were able to show significant differences in the community composition between the two regions and to give insights into the vertical distribution of protists within the sediment (0-20 cm). The results indicate that the differences in community composition in the different regions might be explained by several abiotic factors such as salinity and water depth, but are also influenced by methodological aspects such as differences between DNA and RNA results.
Keywords: Baltic Sea; amplicon sequencing; brackish; diversity; sediment; unicellular eukaryotes.