Invisible to the naked eye, countless tiny creatures cavort in bodies of water, even deep underground - in groundwater. In this sparse habitat, they fulfill important functions in nutrient cycles and food webs that have hardly been researched to date.
These tiny creatures include protozoa, or more broadly protists. These include crawling amoebae, which constantly change their shape, and others that use flagella or cilia to move around on their bodies. Protists always impress with their remarkable variety of shapes. Most protozoa in groundwater are hunters that feed on smaller microorganisms, mostly bacteria.
We are investigating the extent to which they influence the bacterial community and what role they play in the food web.
