There is an increasing amount of information on the ecology and phylogenetic community composition of autotrophic picoplankton found in the shallow lakes of Hungary

Winter phytoplankton communities in the shallow alkaline pans of Hungary are frequently dominated by picoeukaryotes, sometimes in particularly high abundance. In winter 2012 the ice-covered alkaline Zab-szék pan was found to be extraordinarily rich in picoeukaryotic green algae (42–82 × 10 6 cells ml -1 ) despite the simultaneous presence of multiple stressors (low temperature and light intensity with high pH and salinity). The maximum photosynthetic rate of the picoeukaryote community was 1.4 μg C μg chlorophyll a -1 h -1 at 125 μmol m -2 s -1 . The assimilation rates compared with the available light intensity measured on the field show that the community was considerably light-limited. Estimated areal primary production was