Testate amoebae, a toolbox for environmental characterization and monitoring

Testate amoebae are very abundant protozoa in brackish and freshwater aquatic sedimentary environments, estuaries, lakes, rivers, peatlands and wet soils. They have a shell which protects the cell and can be preserved in old substrates. Testate amoebae assemblages are characteristic of the environment in which they develop. We will discuss the sedimentary constraints on the construction of shell, the use in paleo-environmental reconstructions as well as the results of recent studies modeling the possibilities of evolution and migration of species under the constraint of global environmental changes.