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Mulot, Matthieu
Résultat de la recherche
Effects of decomposing cadavers on soil nematode communities over a one-year period
2016-12-1, Szelecz, Ildikò, Sorge, Franziska, Seppey, Christophe, Mulot, Matthieu, Steel, Hanne, Neilson, Roy, Griffiths, Bryan S., Amendt, Jens, Mitchell, Edward
In terrestrial ecosystems decomposing cadavers act as resource patches affecting nutrient cycling and soil communities, but the effects on soil communities are not well known. In this study we investigated nematode community response to decomposing pig cadavers (Sus scrofa) over a one-year period. As nematodes play key roles in soil food webs and are known to respond to disturbances and nutrient enrichment, we hypothesised that they would respond to decomposing cadavers and that this response would change over time. We compared the temporal patterns of nematode density and community structure under pig cadavers, either placed directly on the ground or hung 1 m aboveground (for effects of cadaveric fluids only), with two controls, i.e., bare soil and bags filled with soil placed on the ground (fake pigs e for microclimatic effects only). In the control and fake pig treatments nematode densities, community patterns and maturity indices did not change significantly. In contrast, density increased significantly underneath the ground and hanging pigs two weeks after the beginning of the experiment, and nematode family richness, Simpson diversity and maturity index were sgnificantly reduced in the cadaver treatments. Most nematode families responded negatively to cadavers with the notable exceptions of Rhabditidae, Neodiplogasteridae and Diplogasteroididae. The latter two were found exclusively underneath the decomposing cadavers and are promising bioindicators of vertebrate cadaver decomposition. Even though diversity, density and communities were recovering after one year, the impact of cadavers was still significant for the maturity index. These contrasting patterns illustrate how decomposing cadavers contribute to increasing local biodiversity and suggest that soil nematodes could be used as a tool to document the presence of a decomposing cadaver, or to estimate the time elapsed since death (post-mortem interval). Patterns should, however, be compared in different settings and seasons before such a tool can be validated.
Environmental DNA COI barcoding for quantitative analysis of protists communities: A test using the Nebela collaris complex (Amoebozoa;Arcellinida; Hyalospheniidae)
, Kosakyan, Anush, Mulot, Matthieu, Mitchell, Edward, Lara, Enrique
Environmental DNA surveys are used for screening eukaryotic diversity. However, it is unclear how quantitative this approach is and to what extent results from environmental DNA studies can be used for ecological studies requiring quantitative data. Mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase (COI) is used for species-level taxonomic studies of testate amoebae and should allow assessing the community composition from environmental samples, thus bypassing biases due to morphological identification. We tested this using a COI clone library approach and focusing on the Nebela collaris complex. Comparisons with direct microscopy counts showed that the COI clone library diversity data matched the morphologically identified taxa, and that community com-position estimates using the two approaches were similar. However, this correlation was improved when microscopy counts were corrected for biovolume. Higher correlation with biovolume-corrected community data suggests that COI clone library data matches the ratio of mitochondria and that within closely-related taxa the density of mitochondria per unit biovolume is approximately constant. Further developments of this metabarcoding approach including quantifying the mitochondrial density among closely-related taxa, experiments on other taxonomic groups and using high throughput sequencing should make if possible to quantitatively estimate community composition of different groups, which would be invaluable for microbial food webs studies.