The Past, Present and Future of Soil Protist Ecology

This essay introduces the special issue of this journal on the ecology of soil protists. This issue marks approximately the first 100 years of soil protistology as a discipline as some of the first studies to show that protozoa were an important part of soil ecology took place at Rothamsted, in southern England, towards the end of the first decade of the twentieth century. Much of the work on soil protists – and indeed the papers in this special issue – concentrate on traditional protozoa. In addition it is now realised that slime molds (Eumycetozoans) can potentially make an important contribution to the numbers and diversity of soil amoebae. We also argue that diatoms and other algae are likely important in soils and in need of more detailed study. By its nature microbiology (including soil protist ecology) is a science limited by technology – for example the subject could not really exist before the invention of the microscope. We suggest ways in which newer technologies (molecular methods, stable isotopes etc) may contribute to future studies on the ecology of soil protists.