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The World of Protozoa, Rotifera, Nematoda and Oligochaeta

Ref ID : 2083

Louis Bonnet; [Le Peuplement Thecamoebien des Mousses Corticoles]. Protistologica IX(3):319-338, 1973

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Statistical analysis reveals that the testacean fauna comprises: a) one aerophilous, moss-dwelling fraction independent of the underlying soil; b) one fraction of soil-origin, and varying according to the type of soil. As there is no action of the chemical factors of the soil. The only agent of distribution is the availability of water. The species of soil-origin are notably capable of living in mosses, in pH conditions which are very different from those of their original element (whence, criticism of the pH factor). Conversely, when moss-haunting species live in the soil, in the presence of the chemical factors of it, they may evidence strict ecological demands: water, being more abundant, does not remain, then, the main factor of distribution. The profiles of morphological types are closely related to the water availability, which can be estimated by means of specific indexes based on the morphological types. The population rarely reaches its climax and the diversity index is unrelated to the "quality" of the biotop, contrary to what one observes in ground-mosses and in soils.