Protozoan Communities: Terrestrial Habitats

Abstract

Protozoan motility, feeding, and growth require water; terrestral protozoa are therefore in a sense freshwater organisms living in the water which may either cover the surfaces of plants and litter as a thin film, or fill the pores of soils. In permanently flooded and saturated soils the protozoan fauna include species which are otherwise found in ponds, lakes, and streams. Well-drained terrestrial soils and litters, however, harbor protozoa with special adaptations for life in such environments and they rarely occur elsewhere (Stout, 1984). In this sense genuine terrestrial protozoa do exist.