Ecological Distribution of Protosteloid Amoebae in New Zealand
- Published
- Accepted
- Subject Areas
- Biogeography, Ecology, Microbiology
- Keywords
- Amoebae, Protostelid, New Zealand, Biogeography
- Copyright
- © 2013 Zahn et al.
- Licence
- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
- Cite this article
- 2013. Ecological Distribution of Protosteloid Amoebae in New Zealand. PeerJ PrePrints 1:e136v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.136v1
Abstract
During the period of March 2004 to December 2007, samples of aerial litter (dead but still attached plant parts) and ground litter were collected from study sites representing a wide range of latitudes (34° S to 50° S) and a variety of different types of habitats throughout New Zealand (including Stewart Island and the Auckland Islands). The objective was to survey the assemblages of protosteloid amoebae present in this region of the world. Twenty-nine described species of protosteloid amoebae were recorded, along with the heterolobesean acrasid, Acrasis rosea. Of the species recovered, Protostelium mycophaga was by far the most abundant and was found in more than half of all samples. Most species were found in fewer than 10% of the samples collected. Seven abundant or common species were found to display significant preferences for aerial litter or ground litter microhabitats. There was some evidence of a general pattern of a decrease in species richness and diversity with increasing latitude and precipitation and elevation.
Supplemental Information
Map of sampling locations
Sample site markers are scaled to represent the mean number of protosteloid amoebae fruiting bodies encountered for each line of substrate observed from that site. N = species richness observed at each major latitudinal range.
Collection site locations and characteristics
Number of lines plated refers to the number of lines of substrate observed from each site.
Species observations
A=abundant, C=common, O=occasional, R=rare *p<0.05; **p<0.01; ***p<0.001 (All tests: significant difference between Aerial and Ground litter abundance; one-way ANOVA test)
Species encounters along environmental variables
Regressions of all observations of fruiting bodies' richness and abundance against latitude, elevation, and annual rainfall.
