The ecology of testate amoebae (protists) in Sphagnum in north-western Poland in relation to peatland ecology
Authors:
- Mariusz Grzegorz Lamentowicz,
- Edward A. D. Mitchell
Abstract
We studied the relationship between testate amoebae (Protozoa) communities and the depth to the water table (DWT), pH, conductivity, and microhabitat type in Sphagnum dominated peatlands of north-western Poland and built predictive (transfer function) models for inferring DWT and pH based on the testate amoebae community structure. Such models can be used for peatland monitoring and paleoecology. A total of 52 testate amoebae taxa were recorded. In a redundancy analysis, DWT and pH explained 20.1% of the variation in the species data and allowed us to identify three groups of taxa: species that are associated with (1) high DWT and low pH, (2) low DWT and low pH, and (3) high pH and mid-range DWT. Our transfer function models allow DWT and pH to be estimated with mean errors of 9.89 cm and 0.71 pH units. The prediction error of the DWT model and the tolerance of the species both increase with increasing dryness. This pattern mirrors the ecology of Sphagnum mosses: Species growing in wet habitats are more sensitive to change in water table depth than the species growing in drier microhabitats. Our results are consistent with studies of testate amoeba ecology in other regions, and they provide additional support for the use of these organisms in paleoecological and biomonitoring contexts. © Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. 2005.
- Record ID
- UAMeba9ed7b952745698a8b57fcac7211a5
- Author
- Journal series
- Microbial Ecology, ISSN 0095-3628
- Issue year
- 2005
- Vol
- 50
- Pages
- 48-63
- ASJC Classification
- ; ;
- DOI
- DOI:10.1007/s00248-004-0105-8 Opening in a new tab
- Language
- (en) English
- Score (nominal)
- 0
- Score source
- journalList
- Publication indicators
- = 167; = 159; = 225; : 2014 = 1.136; : 2006 (2 years) = 2.332 - 2007 (5 years) =3.121
- Citation count
- 240
- Uniform Resource Identifier
- https://researchportal.amu.edu.pl/info/article/UAMeba9ed7b952745698a8b57fcac7211a5/
- URN
urn:amu-prod:UAMeba9ed7b952745698a8b57fcac7211a5
* presented citation count is obtained through Internet information analysis and it is close to the number calculated by the Publish or PerishOpening in a new tab system.