Surface currents shape protist community structure across the Indo-Pacific.

Biogeographic structure in marine protist communities is shaped by a combination of dispersal potential and environmental selection. High-throughput sequencing and global sampling efforts have helped better resolve the composition and functions of these communities in the world's oceans using both molecular and visual methods. However, molecular barcoding data are critically lacking across the Indo-Pacific, a region widely considered the epicenter of marine biodiversity.

Rubble fields shape planktonic protist communities in Indonesia at a local scale.

The Coral Triangle encompasses nearly 30% of the world's coral reefs and is widely considered the epicenter of marine biodiversity. Destructive fishing practices and natural disturbances common to this region damage reefs leaving behind fields of coral rubble. While the impacts of disturbances in these ecosystems are well documented on metazoans, we have a poor understanding of their impact on microbial communities at the base of the food web.