Cotterill Fenton P D, Augustin Hannes, Medicus Reinhard, Foissner Wilhelm
AEON-Africa Earth Observatory Network, Geoecodynamics Research Hub, University of Stellenbosch, Private Bag X1, Matieland 7602, South Africa;
Diversity (Basel). 2013 Jun;5(2):374-392. doi: 10.3390/d5020374.
Although constituting more than 100,000 described species, protists are virtually ignored within the arena of biodiversity conservation. One reason is the widespread belief that the majority of protists have cosmopolitan distributions, in contrast to the highly hetereogenous biogeography of the "mega-Metazoa". However, modern research reveals that about one third of the known protists have restricted distributions, which endorses their conservation, at least in special cases. Here, we report what probably ranks as the first successful conservation intervention focused directly on known protist diversity. It is justified by unique species, type localities, and landscape maintenance as evidence for legislation. The protected habitat comprises an ephemeral pond, which is now a "Natural Monument" for ciliated protozoa. This wetland occupies a natural depression on the Krauthügel ("cabbage hill") south of the fortress of Salzburg City. When filled, the claviform pond has a size of ~30 × 15 m and a depth rarely surpassing 30 cm. Water is present only for some days or weeks, depending on heavy and/or prolonged rain. The pond occupied an agricultural field where root and leafy vegetables were cultivated for possibly more than 200 years. In the 1960s, this area became a grassland utilized as an autumn pasture, but was abandoned in the 1990s. Repeated sampling between 1982 and 2012 recovered a total of at least 150 ciliate taxa, of which 121 were identified to species level. Eight species were new to science, and an additional 10 poorly known species were reinvestigated and neotypified with populations from the Krauthügel pond. Both endemism and type localities justify the argument that the "integrative approach" in biodiversity and conservation issues should include protists and micro-metazoans. We argue that Krauthügel holds a unique reference node for biodiversity inventories to obtain the baseline knowledge-which is the prerequisite to monitor ecosystem integrity-and detect and evaluate impacts of natural and anthropogenic disturbances.
尽管已描述的原生生物物种超过10万种，但在生物多样性保护领域，它们实际上被忽视了。一个原因是人们普遍认为，与“大型后生动物”高度异质的生物地理学不同，大多数原生生物具有世界性分布。然而，现代研究表明，约三分之一的已知原生生物分布受限，这至少在某些特殊情况下支持了对它们的保护。在此，我们报告了可能是首次直接针对已知原生生物多样性的成功保护干预措施。其依据是独特的物种、模式产地以及作为立法证据的景观维护。受保护的栖息地是一个临时性池塘，现在是纤毛虫原生动物的“自然纪念物”。这片湿地位于萨尔茨堡市堡垒以南的克劳特山（“卷心菜山”）上的一个天然洼地。蓄水时，棒状池塘的面积约为30×15米，深度很少超过30厘米。水仅存在几天或几周，具体取决于大雨和/或持续降雨情况。该池塘所在的区域曾是一片农田，种植根茎类和叶菜类蔬菜可能超过200年。20世纪60年代，这片区域变成了用作秋季牧场的草地，但在20世纪90年代被废弃。1982年至2012年间的多次采样共发现了至少150种纤毛虫分类单元，其中121种被鉴定到物种水平。有8个物种是科学上新发现的，另外10个鲜为人知的物种也根据来自克劳特山池塘的种群进行了重新研究和新模式指定。特有性和模式产地都证明了在生物多样性和保护问题上的“综合方法”应包括原生生物和微型后生动物这一观点。我们认为，克劳特山是生物多样性清查的一个独特参考节点，可用于获取基线知识——这是监测生态系统完整性以及检测和评估自然和人为干扰影响的前提条件。
