The newfound species seen here is one of about 1,300 known types of tardigrades. It was discovered in moss growing on dead tree trunks in Germany’s Black Forest. Far too small to see with the unaided eye, this creature is among billions of life-forms on the forest floor that are essential to the health of the planet. Magnified 2,400 times.
THESE TINY CREATURES ARE MARVELOUS
PHOTOGRAPH BY OLIVER MECKES AND NICOLE OTTOWA
Fungi like this Resinicium bicolor—shown magnified 7,000 times—start breaking down dead trees by digesting lignin, the complex compound that helps form woody cell walls in plants.
Scales of silica cover the single-celled body of a testate amoeba. These types of amoebas are named for the hard shells they create, possibly for protection against environmental changes within the forest litter.
Resembling a fairy’s gift basket, the fruiting body of a slime mold, magnified 400 times, releases spores from its perch on woody debris draped in fungal filaments. Slime molds feast on other microbes found in decaying plant
Some mycorrhizal fungi make their homes inside plant cells, as seen in this cross section of a European blueberry root. This allows soil residents of very different sizes to exchange nutrients—helping the forest
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