TY - JOUR

T1 - Soil protistology rebooted

T2 - 30 fundamental questions to start with

AU - Geisen, Stefan

AU - Mitchell, Edward A.D.

AU - Wilkinson, David M.

AU - Adl, Sina

AU - Bonkowski, Michael

AU - Brown, Matthew W.

AU - Fiore-Donno, Anna Maria

AU - Heger, Thierry J.

AU - Jassey, Vincent E.J.

AU - Krashevska, Valentyna

AU - Lahr, Daniel J.G.

AU - Marcisz, Katarzyna

AU - Mulot, Matthieu

AU - Payne, Richard

AU - Singer, David

AU - Anderson, O. Roger

AU - Charman, Dan J.

AU - Ekelund, Flemming

AU - Griffiths, Bryan S.

AU - Rønn, Regin

AU - Smirnov, Alexey

AU - Bass, David

AU - Belbahri, Lassaâd

AU - Berney, Cédric

AU - Blandenier, Quentin

AU - Chatzinotas, Antonis

AU - Clarholm, Marianne

AU - Dunthorn, Micah

AU - Feest, Alan

AU - Fernández, Leonardo D.

AU - Foissner, Wilhelm

AU - Fournier, Bertrand

AU - Gentekaki, Eleni

AU - Hájek, Michal

AU - Helder, Johannes

AU - Jousset, Alexandre

AU - Koller, Robert

AU - Kumar, Santosh

AU - La Terza, Antonietta

AU - Lamentowicz, Mariusz

AU - Mazei, Yuri

AU - Santos, Susana S.

AU - Seppey, Christophe V.W.

AU - Spiegel, Frederick W.

AU - Walochnik, Julia

AU - Winding, Anne

AU - Lara, Enrique

N1 - Funding Information: We thank Alex K. Tice for providing pictures of Acrasis and Rosculus and Cl?ment Duckert for providing the picture of Euglypha included in Fig.1. SG thanks Wim van der Putten and his ERC-Adv grant 260?55290 (SPECIALS). We further acknowledge funding by the Swiss Contribution to the enlarged European Union (Project CLIMPEAT: PSPB-013/2010) to ML, KM, MM, VEJJ and EADM, the Russian Science Foundation (no 14-14-00891 to RJP and YuM and 14-50-00029 to YuM), the S?o Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) (Young Investigator Award no 2013/04585-3) to DJGL, the Danish Council for Independent Research (DFF-4002-00274) to FE, the Swiss National Science Foundation to VEJJ (no 315260_149807), EL, QB and DS (grants no 143960 and 163254), EADM & TH (no 141188 and 163431), the Chilean Comisi?n Nacional de Investigaci?n Cient?fica y Tecnol?gica (CONICYT) (doctoral grants no 21110037 and 78130011), the Universidad de Concepcion (Chile) and the Wildlife Conservation Society (Karukinka-grant no. 2012) to LDF, the Russian Science Foundation (no 14-14-00891 to RJP and YuM and 14-50-00029 to YuM, and the University of Neuch?tel to the SNF projects to EL (31003A_163254) and EADW Mitchell (31003A_163431). This is publication of the NIOO-KNAW. Publisher Copyright: © 2017 Elsevier Ltd Copyright: Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

PY - 2017/8/1

Y1 - 2017/8/1

N2 - Protists are the most diverse eukaryotes. These microbes are keystone organisms of soil ecosystems and regulate essential processes of soil fertility such as nutrient cycling and plant growth. Despite this, protists have received little scientific attention, especially compared to bacteria, fungi and nematodes in soil studies. Recent methodological advances, particularly in molecular biology techniques, have made the study of soil protists more accessible, and have created a resurgence of interest in soil protistology. This ongoing revolution now enables comprehensive investigations of the structure and functioning of soil protist communities, paving the way to a new era in soil biology. Instead of providing an exhaustive review, we provide a synthesis of research gaps that should be prioritized in future studies of soil protistology to guide this rapidly developing research area. Based on a synthesis of expert opinion we propose 30 key questions covering a broad range of topics including evolution, phylogenetics, functional ecology, macroecology, paleoecology, and methodologies. These questions highlight a diversity of topics that will establish soil protistology as a hub discipline connecting different fundamental and applied fields such as ecology, biogeography, evolution, plant-microbe interactions, agronomy, and conservation biology. We are convinced that soil protistology has the potential to be one of the most exciting frontiers in biology.

AB - Protists are the most diverse eukaryotes. These microbes are keystone organisms of soil ecosystems and regulate essential processes of soil fertility such as nutrient cycling and plant growth. Despite this, protists have received little scientific attention, especially compared to bacteria, fungi and nematodes in soil studies. Recent methodological advances, particularly in molecular biology techniques, have made the study of soil protists more accessible, and have created a resurgence of interest in soil protistology. This ongoing revolution now enables comprehensive investigations of the structure and functioning of soil protist communities, paving the way to a new era in soil biology. Instead of providing an exhaustive review, we provide a synthesis of research gaps that should be prioritized in future studies of soil protistology to guide this rapidly developing research area. Based on a synthesis of expert opinion we propose 30 key questions covering a broad range of topics including evolution, phylogenetics, functional ecology, macroecology, paleoecology, and methodologies. These questions highlight a diversity of topics that will establish soil protistology as a hub discipline connecting different fundamental and applied fields such as ecology, biogeography, evolution, plant-microbe interactions, agronomy, and conservation biology. We are convinced that soil protistology has the potential to be one of the most exciting frontiers in biology.

KW - Biodiversity

KW - Food web

KW - Functional diversity

KW - Microbial interactions

KW - Protozoa

KW - Soil protists

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85017536108&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.soilbio.2017.04.001

DO - 10.1016/j.soilbio.2017.04.001

M3 - Review article

VL - 111

SP - 94

EP - 103

JO - Soil Biology and Biochemistry

JF - Soil Biology and Biochemistry

SN - 0038-0717

ER -