Temporal and spatial variability of terrestrial diatoms at the catchment scale: controls on communities

Jasper Foets; Carlos E Wetzel; Adriaan J Teuling; Laurent Pfister

doi:10.7717/peerj.8296

Temporal and spatial variability of terrestrial diatoms at the catchment scale: controls on communities

PeerJ. 2020 Jan 3:8:e8296. doi: 10.7717/peerj.8296. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Jasper Foets^{1

2}, Carlos E Wetzel¹, Adriaan J Teuling², Laurent Pfister^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ Environmental Research and Innovation Department, Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology, Belvaux, Luxembourg.
² Department of Environmental Sciences, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, Netherlands.
³ Faculty of Science, Technology and Communication, University of Luxembourg, Belval, Luxembourg.

Abstract

Diatoms are generally regarded as inhabitants of water bodies. However, numerous taxa are able to survive and reproduce in a variety of non-aquatic ecosystems. Although terrestrial diatoms are discussed extensively in the literature, most of those studies covered floristic aspects and few information exists on their ecology. This lack of knowledge thwarts their potential use as environmental markers in various applications. As a way forward, we investigated the seasonal patterns and the role of different disturbances on the community composition. We collected soil diatom samples in 16 sites across the Attert River basin (Luxembourg) every 4 weeks for a period of 14 months. Our results indicate that forests create a stable microhabitat for diatoms and that temporal variation of the diatom communities is mainly controlled by farming practices rather than seasonal changes in environmental variables. We also found out that communities need one to 2 months to reestablish a new, stable community after a significant change in the environment. We were able to confirm the applicability of the Pollution-Sensitivity Index (IPS) to identify anthropic disturbances.

Keywords: Agriculture; Algae; Ecology; Indicator species; Soil.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR) (PRIDE15/10623093/HYDRO-CSI). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.