Thesis subject

Diversity and community compositions of Protists and Nematodes in soils and plant rhizospheres

Protists represent the vast majority of eukaryotic life on earth with nematodes being the most abundant animals on the planet. But we still know very little about those.

We want to increase the understanding of these organisms in (rhizosphere) soils using a range of methodological techniques including a combination of high-throughput sequencing, qPCR and cultivation/extraction techniques. Comparative studies can be done in a wide range of soil and even aquatic habitats to fill the knowledge on this little studied part of biodiversity. Especially little is known on temporal patterns in communities of soil organisms that will be subject for investigation.