PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Christian Wurzbacher AU - Andrea Fuchs AU - Katrin Attermeyer AU - Katharina Frindte AU - Hans-Peter Grossart AU - Michael Hupfer AU - Peter Casper AU - Michael T. Monaghan TI - Large shifts among eukaryotes, bacteria, and archaea define the vertical organization of a lake sediment AID - 10.1101/057117 DP - 2016 Jan 01 TA - bioRxiv PG - 057117 4099 - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/06/16/057117.short 4100 - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/06/16/057117.full AB - Sediments are depositional areas where particles sink from water columns, but they are also microbial hotspots that play an important role in biogeochemical cycles. Unfortunately, the importance of both processes in structuring microbial community composition has not been assessed. We surveyed all organismic signals of the last ca. 170 years of sediment by metabarcoding, identifying global trends for eukaryotes, bacteria, archaea, and monitored 40 sediment parameters. We linked the microbial community structure to ongoing and historical environmental parameters and defined three distinct sediment horizons. This not only expands our knowledge of freshwater sediments, but also has profound implications for understanding the microbial community structure and function of sediment communities in relation to future, present, and past environmental changes.