Ecological distribution of cellular slime molds in forest soils of Germany

Surface soils were collected from deciduous, coniferous and mixed coniferous-deciduous forest of S, central and W Germany and were planted out for cellular slime molds at Ohio University. Eighteen morphological species were isolated which match those described in the literature. Three entities were isolated only once, hence are considered to be rare: Acytostelium leptosomum, Dictyostelium capitatum, and a new species, P. germanicum. Four species originally described from Japan were isolated for the first time from Europe: D. microsporum, D. capitatum, D. implicatum and Polysphondylium candidum. The most commonly isolated were D. mucoroides, S-type and P. violaceum. Cellular slime mold populations of deciduous and coniferous forests have distinct differences. Numbers of clones per gram and species richness were higher in soils of deciduous forests than in coniferous forests. -from Authors