The influence of lake mixing, light availability and trophic status on species sorting and size structure of planktonic diatom communities along a climate gradient in Southern Chile

We will quantify the realized niches and size-structure of planktonic diatoms in Chilean lakes as a function of mixing regime and light and nutrient availability. We will combine diatom analyses of environmental samples with experiments. This will allow us to assess the effect of climate change on the taxonomic turnover and size structure of planktonic diatoms in sediment cores.