Publications by authors named "Michala Tumova"
Tardigrades are omnipresent microfauna with scarce record on their ecology in soils. Here, we investigated soil inhabiting tardigrade communities in five contrasting polar habitats, evaluating their abundance, diversity, species richness, and species composition. Moreover, we measured selected soil physico-chemical properties to find the drivers of tardigrade distribution among these habitats.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe predicted global increase in the frequency, severity, and intensity of forest fires includes Central Europe, which is not currently considered as a wildfire hotspot. Because of this, a detailed knowledge of long-term post-fire forest floor succession is essential for understanding the role of wildfires in Central European temperate forests. In this study, we used a space-for-time substitution approach and exploited a unique opportunity to observe successional changes in the physical, chemical, and microbial properties of the forest floor in coniferous forest stands on a chronosequence up to 110 years after fire.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- - Soil organisms play a crucial role in ecosystem functions by breaking down carbon and nutrients, directly impacting plant growth, biodiversity, and human nutrition.
- - While soil ecologists often use functional groups to analyze these organisms, there's a lack of comprehensive knowledge about the feeding habits of many soil taxa, despite advancements in molecular and biochemical tools over the past two decades.
- - The review synthesizes current knowledge on the feeding habits of various soil organisms, revealing that many traditionally defined functional groups exhibit omnivorous feeding patterns and interconnected trophic relationships, challenging existing models of soil food webs.