Nivicolous myxomycetes in a changing environment – a new international research project

This year, the project entitled "Mountain ecosystems facing global warming: study of impact of snow cover parameters on microbial communities of nivicolous myxomycetes (MICROCOSMOS)" starts at our Institute. It was submitted in the last call OPUS 20 + LAP of the National Science Centre and as the only proposal in the Evolutionary and Environmental Biology panel approved for implementation by a foreign partner agency (German Research Foundation, DFG) has been accepted for funding.

It aims at a comprehensive assessment of diversity, population dynamics and dispersal capacities of nivicolous myxomycetes in relation to their habitat for better understanding of soil protist communities facing global warming. The project will rely on a system of elevational and latitudinal transects established in the Central European mountains and adjacent lowlands and covering a series of habitats ecologically differing with respect to snow cover.

The project will be carried out in 2022–2024 in cooperation between the team led by Dr. Anna Ronikier from our Institute (Poland) and the team led by Prof. Martin Schnittler from the Greifswald University (Germany).

See the description of the project.

Czerwone Wierchy massif (Western Tatra Mts.), one of the study sites of the elevational transect.
Photo: Anna Ronikier.

Diderma alpinum, one of nivicolous myxomycetes.
Photo: Michał Ronikier.