Soil protists in tropical systems: From morphological variation to trophic groups

by Garvin Schulz
Doctoral thesis
Date of Examination:2022-03-09
Date of issue:2022-03-17
Advisor:Dr. Valentyna Krashevska
Referee:Prof. Dr. Stefan Scheu
Referee:Prof. Dr. Marko Rohlfs
Persistent Address: http://dx.doi.org/10.53846/goediss-9126

 

 

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Abstract

English

In the studies of this thesis, I used two different approaches to shed light on soil protist diversity and ecology in two tropical regions, the montane rainforest of Southern Ecuador and the lowland rainforest of Sumatra, Indonesia. In Chapter 1, I have used classic approaches of light and scanning electron microscopy to study the morphology of testate amoebae to delineate species and relate variability of morphological characteristics to environmental changes. I while in Chapters 2 and 3 I have used high throughput sequencing of environmental DNA to move from individual organisms to whole communities of soil protists. While the effects of changes in the environment of soil protists communities are the focus of Chapter 2, an experimental approach manipulating nutrients, fungi and mesofauna is used to investigate interactions of soil protists with other soil organisms.
Keywords: Protists; Morphology; environmental DNA; Trophic Groups; Land-Use Transformation
 
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