Diversity patterns of plankton communities in Tierra del Fuego peat bog pools as sentinels of climate change

Abstract

Although they contribute a significant proportion of peatlands diversity, peat bog pools are poorly surveyed and understood. In this review, the Rancho Hambre peat bog is taken as a study case to investigate the role of climate-related features in setting the environment of pools and in shaping the structure and dynamics of plankton communities. An interpretation model is proposed in which the interaction of pool morphometry and hydrological connectivity with temperature and precipitation lead to distinct pool types according to their size and trophic status. Molecular diversity spatial patterns for small-sized eukaryotes and prokaryotes coincide with those detected for larger planktonic communities studied by traditional morphology-based taxonomy, all of them supporting this environmental characterisation together with distinct trophic web compositions. Small, acidic ombrotrophic pools showed significantly poorer communities and bacterial phylogenetic clustering, suggesting a stronger environmental filtering that could be enhanced by a lowering water table depth driven by local climate change.