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Shifts in Soil Testate Amoeba Communities Associated with Forest Diversification

  • Soil Microbiology
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Abstract

We studied changes of testate amoeba communities associated with the conversion of spruce monocultures into mixed beech-fir-spruce forests in the Southern Black Forest Mountains (Germany). In this region, forest conversion is characterized by a gradual development of beech undergrowth within thinned spruce tree stands leading to multiple age continuous cover forests with a diversified litter layer. Strong shifts in the abundance of testate amoeba observed in intermediate stages levelled off to monoculture conditions again after the final stage of the conversion process had been reached. The average number of species per conversion stage (i.e., local richness) did not respond strongly to forest conversion, but the total number of species (i.e., regional richness) was considerably higher in the initial stage than in the mixed forests, due to the large number of hygrophilous species inhabiting spruce monocultures. Functional diversity of the testate amoeba community, however, significantly increased during the conversion process. This shift was closely associated with improved C and N availability as well as higher niche diversity in the continuous cover stands. Lower soil acidity in these forests coincided with a higher relative abundance of eurytopic species. Our results suggest that testate amoeba communities are much more affected by physicochemical properties of the soil than directly by litter diversity.

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Acknowledgments

Research was supported by the project „Auswirkungen von Waldumbaumaßnahmen im Südschwarzwald auf die biogene Umwandlung der organischen Bodensubstanz: Struktur, Funktion und Indikatoreignung der Bodenorganismen“ of the program „Forschung für die Umwelt - Zukunftsorientierte Waldwirtschaft - Projektverbund Südlicher Schwarzwald“ (Section B4 No 0339980) funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). We are grateful to Dr. Matthieu Chauvat (University of Rouen, France) for his help in obtaining the samples as well as fruitful discussions during this manuscript preparation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Soil Science, Moscow State University, Leninskie Gory, Moscow, 119992, Russia

    Anatoly A. Bobrov

  2. Institute of Animal Ecology, Justus-Liebig-University, Heinrich-Buff Ring 26, 35392, Giessen, Germany

    Andrei S. Zaitsev & Volkmar Wolters

  3. Laboratory of Soil Ecological Functions, A.N. Severtsov of Ecology and Evolution, Leninskiy pr. 33, Moscow, 119071, Russia

    Andrei S. Zaitsev

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  1. Anatoly A. Bobrov
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Correspondence to Andrei S. Zaitsev.

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Appendix

Appendix

Table 2 List of species of testate amoebae found in four forest conversion stages and their average density (106 ind m−2 ± SD), Shannon diversity, and evenness and Simpson index at four forest conversion stages (±SD)
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Bobrov, A.A., Zaitsev, A.S. & Wolters, V. Shifts in Soil Testate Amoeba Communities Associated with Forest Diversification. Microb Ecol 69, 884–894 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-015-0607-6

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