Assessment of protist diversity and pesticides impact in soil microbial communities

The goal is to assess the effects of protist diversity and pesticide application in the abundance and composition of soil microbial communities. Soil microcosms were established with sterilized soil and soil bacteria extract. Mixtures of soil protists cultured in the lab were inoculated to obtain three levels of protist diversity (control, medium, high). Two pesticide treatments were also applied to each protist diversity level and changes in the microbial community were assessed over time.