Soil protist function varies with elevation in the Swiss Alps.

ABSTRACT: Protists are abundant and play key trophic functions in soil. Documenting how their trophic contributions vary across large environmental gradients is essential to understand and predict how biogeochemical cycles will be impacted by global changes. Here, using amplicon sequencing of environmental DNA in open habitat soil from 161 locations spanning 2600 m of elevation in the Swiss Alps (from 400 to 3000 m), we found that, over the whole study area, soils are dominated by consumers, followed by parasites and phototrophs. In contrast, the proportion of these groups in local communities shows large variations in relation to elevation. While there is, on average, three times more consumers than parasites at low elevation (400-1000 m), this ratio increases to 12 at high elevation (2000-3000 m).

SUBMITTER: Mazel F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9290697 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature