Project description:Understanding the biogeographical patterns and underlying drivers of microbial functional diversity is essential for anticipating climate change impacts on ecosystem functioning worldwide. However, this matter remains scarcely addressed in freshwater ecosystems. Using the high-throughput gene array GeoChip 4.0, we show that functional gene alpha diversity and compositon differ across mountains, alpha diversity declines towards high elevations and compositional turnover increases with larger elevational distances. Both continental- and mountain-scale patterns were primarily driven by climatic variables.
