Abstract
Summary Investigations designed to obtain data on the effect of soil moisture fluctuations on population dynamics of soil inhabiting testate protozoan Trinema enchelys were carried out in a subalpine meadow in the Tyrolian Centralalps (Austria). The results above indicate that there was an increase of active individuals during periods with high soil moisture contents like melting snow time and heavy sommer precipitation, accompanied by a decrease of encysted specimens. Within measurements of 1000 individuals, Trinema enchelys showed much size variation, namely groups of larger tests with mean size of 80 μm and groups of smaller ones with 30μm mean size. The latter numerically dominated the population. The increase of test size was correlated with an increase of soil moisture contents. The food consumption of the species seems to vary during periods with different soil moisture contents in relation to test size. In lower soil moisture contents they ingested detritus, in higher soil moisture they grazed on bacteria and the large forms eYen captured small Euglyphidae like Trinema lineare and Euglypha laevis.
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