Soil ciliated protist communities from agroecosystems and natural sites of Region Marche (Italy)

In the framework of the BioPrint Pilot Project and for the first time in Italy, we have in-vestigated the biodiversity and the community structure of soil ciliates from agroecosys-tems and natural sites of Marche Region. The aims of the study were: i) to evaluate the capacity of ciliates to discriminate between different types of land uses; ii) farming man-agement practices; and iii) to assess relationships among ciliate community and abiotic parameters. Soil samples were collected twice from 10 sites (5 natural sites: FORest (vir-gin soils); and 5 agricultural fields: 3 ORGanic (minimum tillage) and 2 CONventional (sod seeding). Ciliate communities were studied by means of qualitative (non-flooded Petri dish) and quantitative methods. Soil chemical-physical (texture, CEC NPK, OM, C/N, soil moisture, temperature) parameters were also measured. Qualitative ciliate analysis al-lowed us to identify a total of 59 species representing 29 genera and 12 orders (plus 10 species new to science). ORG sites were the richest in species followed by CON and FOR. Multivariate analysis showed statistically significant differences between natural sites (FORest) and agricultural sites, as well as between the ORGanic and CONventional man-agement farming systems. CCA analysis showed correlations between the distribution of species with environmental parameters indicating the importance of these parameters in shaping the ciliate communities in the different type sites. Altogether, these results showed the bioindicative potential of ciliate communities in discriminating between nat-ural sites (FORests) and agroecosystems, as well as their capacity to discriminate, at least preliminary, between different soil management systems (ORG vs CON).