Fig. 3 in Introduction to special issue The Past, Present and Future of Soil Protist Ecology

Fig. 3. Examples of protist diversity in a range of soil habitats. Top Left: The summit of Green Mountain (845 m a. s. l.), Ascension Island in the tropical South Atlantic. A single soil sample from under the bamboo produced three species of flagellates, two non-testate amoebae (gymnamoeba), one ciliate and three testate amoebae species (Wilkinson and Smith 2006). In addition Landolt et al. (2005) isolated eight species of protostelid slime moulds from leaf litter samples collected near the pond shown in the photograph. All the vegetation seen in the photograph is comprised of introduced plant species (Wilkinson 2004).Top Right: Summit of Mot Sper Chamana Sevenna (2424 m a. s. l.) in the European Alps, on the Swiss/Italian boarder. Two moss samples from the summit gave a total of 17 testate amoebae species (Wilkinson and Mitchell, unpublished). Bottom Left: Island in a small lake at Mere Sands Wood nature reserve in North West England. The island is heavily used by roosting and breeding water birds, so the soils probably have a high nutrient status. Seventeen species of testate amoebae and 29 species of diatoms were found in the litter and upper soil horizons taken from within the quadrat shown in the photograph (Creevy et al., unpublished). Bottom Right: Holcroft Moss – a peat bog in Cheshire, England. Twenty four species of testate amoebae were found in the surface vegetation and underlying soil of a single sample (Valentine et al., unpublished).