In nature, protists directly participate in litter decomposition and indirectly affect litter decomposition processes by means of their influence on litter microbial communities. To date, relevant studies on litter microbial communities have primarily focused on bacteria and fungi, while relatively little attention has been paid to the characteristics of protozoan communities within damaged ecosystems. Two dominant grass species (Bothriochloa ischaemum and Imperata cylindrica) were selected from China's "Eighteenth" River tailings dam to explore protozoan community composition and diversity in a degraded mining area and to clarify the influence among key ecological factors and protozoan community characteristics in litter. High-throughput sequencing was used to analyze protozoan community composition and diversity, while correlation analysis was used to explore the relationships between protozoan communities and litter nutrient characteristics, including associative enzyme degradation. Although protozoan communities in litter shared a dominant group at an order level (Colpodida), they differed at a genus level (i.e., Hausmanniella and Tychosporium). Moreover, although the order Cryomonadida positively correlated to total nitrogen (TN) and sucrose, it exhibited an extreme negative correlation to total carbon (TC) and cellulase. Colpodida and Oomycota_X significantly and negatively correlated to litter urease activity. Nutrient characteristics of grass litter in copper tailing dams are important ecological factors that affect protozoan community characteristics. Notable differences were observed among protozoan communities of these two grass species, while litter enzyme activities were closely correlated to protozoan community diversity. The results suggested that Colpodida may play important roles in litter decomposition and nutrient cycling in mining areas.
Keywords: Bothriochloa ischaemum; Imperata cylindrica; copper tailings dam; diversity; litter; protozoan community.