Species-specific predation determines the feeding impacts of six soil protist species on bacterial and eukaryotic prey.

Predatory protists play a central role in nutrient cycling and are involved in other ecosystem functions by predating the microbiome. While most soil predatory protist species arguably are bacterivorous, some protist species can prey on eukaryotes. However, studies about soil protist feeding mainly focused on bacteria as prey and rarely tested both bacteria and eukaryotes as potential prey.