Ref ID : 2972
Roger Pourriot; [Rotiferes du sol] (Soil Rotifers, a review). REVUE D'ECOLOGIE ET DE BIOLOGIE DU SOL (Rev.Ecol.Biol.Sol) 16(2):279-312, 1979
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Having a presumed reduced function in the soil, the Rotifers are a quantitatively unnegligible component of the soil microfauna. The Bdelloids (Digonontes), essential part of the soil Rotifers, show peculiarities adapted to the life in soils: shape of the body, elasticity and impermeability of the tegument, mobility, ability of enhanced resistance to drought (cryptobiosis), reduced sexuality. The structure of the rotifers communities is similar in edaphon and in mosses. Frequency and abundance of Bdelloids genera and species are greatly related to the water content and to its variations: some species inhabit only permanent submerged environment, others are confined to periodically dried biotopes. Because of their delicate taxonomy, a few works are devoted to this homogeneous group whose ecology, in particular population dynamic, is still unperfectly known.