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- Title
Contrasting protist communities (Cercozoa: Rhizaria) in pristine and earthworm-invaded North American deciduous forests.
- Authors
Dumack, Kenneth; Ferlian, Olga; Morselli Gysi, Deisy; Degrune, Florine; Jauss, Robin-Tobias; Walden, Susanne; Öztoprak, Hüsna; Wubet, Tesfaye; Bonkowski, Michael; Eisenhauer, Nico
- Abstract
Earthworms are considered ecosystem engineers due to their fundamental impact on soil structure, soil processes and on other soil biota. An invasion of non-native earthworm species has altered soils of North America since European settlement, a process currently expanding into still earthworm-free forest ecosystems due to continuous spread and increasing soil temperatures owing to climate change. Although earthworms are known to modify soil microbial diversity and activity, it is as yet unclear how eukaryote consumers in soil microbial food webs will be affected. Here, we investigated how earthworm invasion affects the diversity of Cercozoa, one of the most dominant protist taxa in soils. Although the composition of the native cercozoan community clearly shifted in response to earthworm invasion, the communities of the different forests showed distinct responses. We identified 39 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) exclusively indicating earthworm invasion, hinting at an earthworm-associated community of Cercozoa. In particular, Woronina pythii, a hyper-parasite of plant-parasitic Oomycota in American forests, increased strongly in the presence of invasive earthworms, indicating an influence of invasive earthworms on oomycete communities and potentially on forest health, which requires further research.
- Subjects
NORTH America; DECIDUOUS forests; COMMUNITY forests; FOREST health; MICROBIAL diversity; SOIL temperature; PLANT invasions; BIOLOGICAL invasions
- Publication
Biological Invasions, 2022, Vol 24, Issue 5, p1345
- ISSN
1387-3547
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s10530-021-02726-x