Do Interactions of Cellular Slime Mold Species Regulate their Densities in Soil?

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Studies of the ecology of macroorganisms have produced a body of theory about the nature of biological interactions and their effects on species in the field. This body of theory describes the ways that species affect each other and also predicts the outcome of specific interactions such as competition or predation. It is reasonable to ask whether the same body of theory applies to species of microorganisms. We performed a simple field experiment to test the hypothesis that biological interactions influence species of cellular slime molds living in forest soils. Members of the guild of cellular slime mold species co—occur on both microhabitat and geographic scales and in laboratory cultures, the species all consume the same food resources. We experimentally elevated the density of one cellular slime mold species and detected significant population responses in the remaining species in the cellular slime molds: (1) we observed resource limitation in the species that we added, and (2) we observed that the densities of cellular slime mold species are interrelated.