Microbial biogeography in Mediterranean Vernal pools of western North America
Abstract
Microbial organisms are important in all ecosystems, yet their diversity and distributions in different natural environments still need to be assessed. This doctoral thesis focuses on the study of macroecological distribution patterns and environmental constraints acting over different microbial groups inhabiting ephemeral ecosystems —vernal pools. Vernal pools are temporal wetlands, with contrasting desiccation periods and water availability periods; fundamentally they are well-delimited ecosystems, embedded in completely terrestrial habitats and populated by specialized organisms. 16s Hightroughput-sequencing was used for the analysis of Environmental DNA (eDNA) collected from different substrates in vernal pool ecosystems to investigate the microbial communities living in these endangered ecosystems.