Cellular Slime Molds of Switzerland. II. Distribution in Forest Soils

Abstract

A detailed analysis of occurrence and distribution of cellular slime molds in soils of different forest types of Switzerland is given. Specific prevalence patterns representative for each forest type were determined. The degree of complexity of these prevalence patterns parallels tree diversity of the respective forest communities. A comparison of the prevalence patterns shows that by proceeding from species‐rich to species‐poor sites the frequent and common species disappear, whereas the infrequent and rare species are conserved. Thus, these latter species, which probably represent specialists, appear to be of considerable ecological significance. Dictyostelium mucoroides is the overwhelming dominant in all forest types. Polysphondylium violaceum and D. minutum are abundant in the deciduous forests. These three species account for 87% of the clones isolated. Two species are characteristic of conifer forests, D. aureo‐stipes var. Helvetium and D. polycarpum. Other species encounterd and listed in decreasing order are D. fasciculatum. P. filamentosum, D. sphaerocephalum, D. giganteum, Acytostelium leptosomum, D. aureum var. luteolum and D. polycephalum. Diversity of species is greatest in the mesic beech forests of the Midland, Jura or Forealps regions but reduced populations containing unique cellular slime molds occur in the highest spruce, larch, and pine forests of the Alps.

Distribution and ecology of dictyostelid cellular slime molds in Great Smoky Mountains National Park

“…Only a single new species was reported previously from high elevations during comparable studies. Examples include D. polycarpum from the subalpine zone (1600-1800 m) of Switzerland (Traub et al 1981), D capitatum from high elevation (1450-1700 m) coniferous forests in Japan (Hagiwara 1983) and D. crassicaule from Pinus pumila thickets (elevation ca 1950 m) on Mount Chokai in Japan (Hagiwara 1984). Dictyostelium septentrionalis, a species described originally from Alaska (Cavender 1978) and known to have a low temperature optimum for growth and development (Raper 1984), was recorded only from two high elevation sites.…”

“…Landolt and Stephenson (1990) listed 12 species from forest soils at 21 sites throughout West Virginia, with one additional species recovered from samples collected in caves (Landolt et al 1992). Datasets available for other temperate regions of the world include those from India (Cavender and Lakhanpal 1986), Japan (Cavender and Kawabe 1989), two countries in western Europe (Traub et al 1981, Cavender et al 1995 and New Zealand (Cavender et al 2002).…”

Dictyostelid cellular slime moulds in the forests of New Zealand

“…The assemblage of dictyostelids associated with forest soils in New Zealand differs from that of other insular and continental regions of the world for which comparable data exist. In Table 3 are compared numbers of species, mean numbers of species recovered per study site, mean numbers of clones g~L per study site, total numbers of clones isolated, and numbers of sites investigated for studies carried out in Japan (Cavender & Kawabe 1989), Germany (Cavender et al 1995), Ohio (Cavender & Hopka 1986), India (Cavender & Lakhanpal 1986), Switzerland (Traub et al 1981), and New Zealand (the present study). New Zealand displays the lowest values for both mean density and the mean number of species recovered per site, and the total number of species recorded (13) is lower than for any region except India.…”

“…However, D.fasciculatum was not known outside of Europe until the present study. The only other regions in which both species have been reported as common are Switzerland (Traub et al 1981) and Germany (Cavender et al 1995), where most soils are circumneutral or alkaline. Also noteworthy is the absence, based on data obtained thus far, of D. purpureum and D. sphaerocephalum in New Zealand.…”

Evolution and Diversity of Dictyostelid Social Amoebae

“…In general, diversity appears to decrease with increasing altitude and latitude (Cavender 1973;Hagiwara 1984;Swanson et al, 1999). As in many groups of plants and animals, species diversity seems to be highest in the tropics (Cavender, 1978;Kawabe, 1980), although some species are probably endemic to temperate (Cavender, 1978;Hagiwara, 1982) or subalpine zones (Traub et al 1981).…”