20.500.12556/DiRROS-28612 Phytoplankton diversity in the Northern Adriatic Sea insights and inconsistencies from microscopy and metabarcoding Phytoplankton plays a fundamental role in marine ecosystems and is widely used to assess environmental change. In this study, light microscopy and DNA metabarcoding approaches were used to investigate phytoplankton communities at three long-term monitoring sites in the northern Adriatic Sea. By combining the two approaches, more than 500 species were recorded. Metabarcoding detected substantially higher diversity, particularly among small and fragile organisms that are difficult to identify under a microscope, whereas microscopy was better for identifying larger species with distinctive morphology. Because species contain different amounts of genetic material, DNA data can overestimate or underestimate their true contribution to the community. Indeed, after applying correction factors that account for these differences, the DNA-based estimates became more consistent with the microscopy results for several phytoplankton groups. The differences among the samples were influenced more by the approach used than by the sampling location. Overall, combining these two approaches provides an accurate and robust picture of phytoplankton communities. In this way, it is possible to improve the reliability of marine biodiversity assessments and to support better environmental monitoring and management in coastal seas. phytoplankton diversity environmental DNA Long-Term Ecological Research amplicon sequencing North Adriatic Sea true false true Angleški jezik Ni določen Neznano 2026-03-25 14:55:49 2026-03-25 14:55:49 2026-03-27 04:10:06 0000-00-00 00:00:00 2026 0 0 Nasl. z nasl. zaslona; Opis vira z dne 25. 3. 2026; Soavtorji: Francesca Neri, Elisa Banchi, Federica Cerino, Timotej Turk Dermastia, Janja Francé, Patricija Mozetič, Angela Pelusi, Tiziana Romagnoli, Marika Ubaldi, Cecilia Totti and Stefano Accoroni; str. 1-19 iss. 6, [article no.] 487 Vol. 15 Mar. 2026 0000-00-00 Zaloznikova Objavljeno NiDoloceno 0000-00-00 0000-00-00 2026-03-19 574.5 2079-7737 10.3390/biology15060487 273040643 https://doi.org/10.3390/biology15060487 1 57421dc9-2852-11f1-aa40-001a4af901a5 https://dirros.openscience.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=42502 RAZ_Montali_Giorgia_2026.pdf RAZ_Montali_Giorgia_2026.pdf 1 8E281D81DBDB4F0954A123C4D950EF29 38854bdd25fcfb9f70e6471d1f1afaeea490abc7c35297ee0771ad77c6c674b4 96a86011-2852-11f1-aa40-001a4af901a5 https://dirros.openscience.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=42503 Nacionalni inštitut za biologijo 0 0 0