2000LAKES

2000LAKES is a project of alpine citizen science aiming to understand the ecological impacts of climate change in alpine lakes and to promote the conservation of alpine microbial ecosystems joining forces between scientists and citizens.

Today, there is limited knowledge about how aquatic microbial diversity responds to climate change in the more than 1500 alpine lakes in Switzerland, despite the ecological and sociological importance of these freshwater reservoirs. Due to their sheer number and inaccessibility, these lakes have been poorly, if at all, studied particularly glacial lakes that have only recently been charted.

The participatory process will start by initiating partnerships with the Club Alpine Suisse, EcoVillages, and Summit Foundation; individual alpine huts; institutional partners like UNIL CoLaboratory; and public schools. They will then be developing a sampling protocol, public communication (including outreach materials and training), and finally, testing in a pilot sampling campaign.

More specifically, the research team will conduct two sampling campaigns over 12 months to describe the microbiome of high-altitude lakes in Switzerland. Samples of planktonic communities in lake water and epilithic microbial mats will be collected in at least 50 Swiss alpine lakes from diverse geological settings, once in summer and once in winter.

Finally, essential physicochemical parameters will be measured in situ with a to relate genetic information to an environmental context. DNA obtained will be processed in the laboratory and sequenced by Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) to describe the lake’s metagenomes, providing information about biogeochemical processes and biological adaptations to the environment in each lake. In addition, the researchers aim to isolate bacteria and initiate a culture collection of alpine bacteria that will serve for research and conservation purposes.

Global change microbiology is a new and growing research field investigating the microbial responses to global warming, land overuse and pollution and on the effects on the Earth’s element cycles and ecosystems health. This novel research will provide knowledge needed to transition toward a sustainable society.