Tree canopies form the most important interface between the earth and the atmosphere, but their role as a potential habitat for eukaryotic microorganisms has been severely understudied. This thesis addresses the hitherto insufficient characterisation of protist diversity and community composition in forest soils and the canopy region, while in particular focusing on the prominent and mostly plant pathogenic Oomycota. Accordingly, several microhabitat compartments were sampled on the ground and in the canopy with the Leipzig Canopy Crane in two seasons over two years, and additionally in a palaeotropical rainforest in Papua New Guinea. Taxon-specific primers were applied to characterise the oomycete diversity in a high-throughput metabarcoding approach. In four chapters, I assess the initial description of oomycete communities in the canopy, their distribution in the forest ecosystem via air dispersal, their seasonality and functional diversity including the quantification of plant pathogens, and their diversity in tropical canopies. These results contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of oomycetes and their pathogenic lineages, their diversity, ecology, distribution, and ecosystem functioning.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:DRESDEN/oai:qucosa:de:qucosa:76629 |
| Date | 12 November 2021 |
| Creators | Jauss, Robin-Tobias |
| Contributors | Universität Leipzig |
| Source Sets | Hochschulschriftenserver (HSSS) der SLUB Dresden |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersion, doc-type:doctoralThesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis, doc-type:Text |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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