The lecture is divided into several sub-themes:
I - Diversity and distribution of protists
II - ecology and hidden diversity of protists
III - ecology in relation to morphology of protists
IV - ecological models and micro-world
V - ecological adaptation and protista.
The lecture is focused on the ecology of unicellular eukaryotic organisms that are not parasitic or symbiotic. Ecological data on diatoms, golden-brown algae, dinoflagellates, testacea, ciliates, foraminifera, and other groups of prostists is based on recent publications from international journals.
The topics deal with the structure and diversity of protist communities, that are evaluated by both traditional morphological approach and molecular genetic approach.