CREAF research technician Dr. Elena Fagín is collaborating with Dr. Hannah Benisty at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona to sequence archaeal taxa recovered from biofilm and water samples across Iberian high-mountain lakes.
The survey covers 278 Pyrenean lakes sampled in 2024 and 50 additional lakes across Sierra Nevada, Guadarrama, and Picos de Europa sampled in 2025, aiming to characterize the vast invisible diversity of these systems.
Once complete, the archaeal dataset will join the bacterial 16S and 18S datasets already generated from the same samples (16S targeting prokaryotic ribosomal RNA genes, 18S targeting eukaryotic ribosomal RNA genes) rounding out the picture of unseen diversity in these lakes: bacteria, eukaryotes, and now archaea, all captured through one coordinated sampling campaign.
