Plant functional group diversity promotes soil protist diversity |
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Authors: | Ledeganck Pieter Nijs Ivan Beyens Louis |
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Affiliation: | Research group Polar Ecology, Limnology and Palaeo-biology, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Groenenborgerlaan 171, B-2020 Antwerp, Belgium. Pieter.Ledeganck@ua.ac.be |
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Abstract: | We tested whether effects of plant diversity can propagate through food webs, down to heterotrophic protists not linked directly to plants. To this end we synthesised grassland ecosystems with varying numbers of plant functional groups (FGN) and assessed corresponding changes in testate amoebae communities. The number of plant species was kept constant. When FGN was increased from 1 to 3, species number and total community density of live testate amoebae were enhanced according to a linear and a saturating function, respectively. From FGN 1 to 2, the appearance of new testate amoebae species did not affect the presence of the resident species, whereas, from FGN 2 to 3 about one quarter of the resident testate amoebae species was replaced, without altering the total species number. Overall, density by species increased, while evenness of the testate amoebae community was not affected by FGN; although Trinema lineare, one of the most common species, became more abundant. The observed relationship between plant functional group diversity and testate amoebae diversity could shed new light on the biogeographical distribution patterns of protists. |
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Keywords: | protist biodiversity soil plant functional groups testate amoebae grassland biogeography |
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