L. Forró szerk.: Miscellanea Zoologica Hungarica 13. 2000 (Budapest, 2000)

Szabó, A.: A contribution to the Ciliata (Protozoa) fauna of chernozem soils

Table 1. contd Species name Abundance Food OLYGOTRICHIDA Halteria grandinella (O.F. Müller) ++ A, Ba HYPOTRICHIDA Kahliella acrobates (Horváth) ++ Ba, D Hemicycliostyla sp. + Amphisiella milnei (Kahl) ++ Ba, D Amphisiella terricola (Gellért) ++ Ba, Fl, D Gonostomum affine (Stein) +++ Ba Holosticha manca plurinucleata (Gellért) ++ Ba, D Holosticha violacea (Kahl) +++ Ba Keronopsis algivora (Gellért) + A, C Uroleptus halseyi (Calkins) +++ Ba, D Uroleptus humicola (Gellért) + Ba Uroleptus musculus (Kahl, Foissner) ++ Ba Histriculus muscorum (Kahl) + A, Ba Opistotricha procera (Kahl) + Ba Oxytricha setigera (Stokes) ++ Ba Steinia*sp. + Stylonychia mytilus (Ehrb.) ++ Ba, Fl Tachysoma terricola (Hemberger) +++ Ba, Fl Aspidisca cicada (Müller) +++ Ba Euplotes muscicola (Kahl) ++ Ba, D In the 0-10 cm layer of chernozem soils as a consequence of exposition, drying, influence of chemicals and radiation the number of individuals is lower by 30-50% than in the 10-20 cm one, where the more stable humidity, the more favourable water-air ratio, the better food supply and the existence of the rhizosphere results in a higher number of species and individuals. In deeper layers the number of individuals is decreasing. We have found no active Ciliata in the 80 cm one, while even cysts were not found in layers deeper than 100 cm. This data show that the Ciliata — similarly to other organisms — inhabit mainly the cultivated layer (0-60 cm). This can be explained by the decrease of the pore volumes, increase of the colloid content and the airless conditions of the lower layers (Table 2). Table 2. Changes of main features of Ciliata fauna in a chernozem soil Soil layer (cm) Parameter 0-10 0-20 20-40 40-60 60-80 80-100 100-120 Cultivated number of ind. 1000/kg 1.324 2.206 405 138 18.6 2.7 Cultivated number of species 32 38 18 8 5 3 Number of cysts 1400 1.700 298 99.7 1.8 2.7 Biomass kg/ha 24.4 42.4 5.6 1.2 0.2 ? In the 0-10 cm layer 10 species were found, while 14 in the 10-30 cm one. In the deeper layers the number of species decreases. In the 60-80 cm layer only 3 species (Colpoda cucullus, C. steinii, Tachisoma pellionella) could be found or cultivated. In case of alkaline soils (e.g. crusted meadow solonetz) often no active Ciliata occurred in the 10-30 cm layer!