Environmental selection and spatiotemporal structure of a major group of soil protists (Rhizaria: Cercozoa) in a temperate grassland

Abstract

Soil protists are increasingly appreciated as essential components of soil foodwebs; however, there is a dearth of information on the factors structuring their communities. Here we investigate the importance of different biotic and abiotic factors as key drivers of spatial and seasonal distribution of protistan communities. We conducted an intensive survey of a 10m2 grassland plot in Germany, focusing on a major group of protists, the Cercozoa. From 177 soil samples, collected from April to November, we obtained 694 Operational Taxonomy Units representing >6 million Illumina reads. All major cercozoan groups were present, dominated by the small flagellates of the Glissomonadida. We found evidence of environmental filtering structuring the cercozoan communities both spatially and seasonally. Spatial analyses indicated that communities were correlated within a range of four meters. Seasonal variations of bactevirores and bacteria, and that of omnivores after a time-lapse, suggested a dynamic prey-predator succession. The most influential edaphic properties were moisture and clay content, which differentially affected each functional group. Our study is based on an intense sampling of protists at a small scale, thus providing a detailed description of the niches occupied by different taxa/functional groups and the ecological processes involved.