Sina Adl

(Numbers in text refer to the selected publications below)

Eukaryote Systematics and Classification

In 2005 we provided a major overhaul of the global classification of eukaryotes from a synthesis of the phylogenetic information available at the time, which has become the accepted standard classification [22]. Several classification innovations were necessary to accomplish this, and much vigorous discussion at conferences and by correspondence (1998-2005). A discussion paper followed [19], and two further revisions. The last revision in 2019 also included functional assignments across all protists, and a modern taxonomy in Chinese script for Asian languages [5].

In 2020 the Phylocode came into effect alongside the publication of the book of Phylonyms describing the eukaryote taxonomy according to phylogenetic nomenclature [2]. This concluded the long saga to develop a new modern code of nomenclature for biological species.

Eukaryote Global Soil Biodiversity

In a well-cited paper we estimated the number of species on Earth [11]. We published two synthesis papers on primers to study protists from environmental DNA sequences [5, 8]. We also provided functional groups assignments to protists denoting whether they applied to the family of genus level classification [5]. We have assembled DNA sequences from the Americas and Eastern Asia representing two parallel N-S transects. The American biomes represented are boreal forest (Alberta), grasslands (Saskatchewan), tropical forests (Costa Rica, Panama, Ecuador); the Asian transects represent N-S transect in Mongolia from boreal to southern Gobi desert, Japan N-S forests, NE China boreal to arid grassland transect, Thailand two tropical forests. Analysis and manuscripts are in progress.

Development and Biotechnology

Scaling-up pulse innovations for food and nutrition security in southern Ethiopia. Grant: $4 million, CIFSRF-IDRC-DFATD Government of Canada. Since 1997 this project continued to grow in scope and impact through a continuous turnover of researchers. The project provides a second annual crop of modern locally developed legume varieties, to improve household income and nutrition. In 2017 we were transferring our project to the regional government authorities and local entrepreneurs to expand our farm outreach and education; and our nutrition outreach and education to mothers and woman-led households. https://csss.ca/wp-content/uploads/June_2015_CSSS_Newsletter-1.pdf

Designing crops for Global Food Security. Grant: $35.5 million, Government of Canada. This is a large interdisciplinary project that aims to rejuvenate and modernise research in crop development [ http://www.cfref-apogee.gc.ca/results-resultats/abstracts-resumes/University_of_Saskatchewan-eng.aspx ]. It is held and managed through the Global Institute for Food Security [ http://gifs.ca/ ], which was founded to perform research that will help deliver transformative innovation to agriculture in both the developed and the developing world.

Sustainable Agriculture (No-tillage, Pasture and Grassland, Organic Agriculture)

1. No-tillage plots were compared to tillage plots under cotton cultivation, with/out Bt cultivars, and assayed for soil biodiversity at the University of Georgia long term agricultural research experimental plots, and several commercial farms in Southern Georgia [21].
2. Grant: $1 million, NSERC Strategic Grant, Government of Canada. A whole system study was conducted at an agricultural research field station of dairy cow pasture under extensive to intensive management, to represent less, similar, and more management than typical commercial operations. Protists, microarthropods, nematodes, earthworms, beetles and other insects, and plants were identified after 3-5 years; grass yield and grazed biomass, along with cow diet and nutrition were monitored; whole system life cycle analysis of energy use was calculated [14, 15].
3. Mathematical model of pathogen dispersal between plots in organic agriculture, against a background of conventional agriculture, indicated there was a critical ratio of “total area under organic” to “total area under conventional” that identified a bifurcation from situations “under control” to “epidemic” related to dispersal and mitigation efficiency for pathogens [12].
4. Mine tailings accumulating over decades provide a chronosequence of natural succession from the oldest piles to the newest. Studies were conducted of succession and remediation efforts along the hills of tailings to assay remediation success and biodiversity recovery [9, 16].
5. No-tillage chronosequence (up to 45 y), tillage, agriculture succession to secondary grasslands, and natural grasslands were assayed for soil eukaryote biodiversity at various Saskatchewan locations. Nitrogen fixation by the free-living bacteria were assayed. Manuscripts in progress.

Soil Biology and Ecology

Soil Protist Ecology

Protists had been neglected from soil biology and soil ecology studies, even though they represent an abundant and very diverse group of organisms responsible for most of the bacteria biomass turnover. (The main reason was using bacteriological techniques that are unsuitable for protistological work.) Through a series of workshops and symposia, the community was educated about their diversity and functions (2000-2005). We developed and published standard protocols for field sampling and routine techniques in the laboratory [18]. Soil protists were incorporated in detail into the protist classification from phylogenetic publications [5]. Several papers on the ecology of protists have been published, including two recent synthetic and critical reviews [6, 7, 20]. Several functional response curves have been obtained from cultured species that remain to be published.

Soil food webs and community structure

A series of laboratory microcosms were used to study grazing interactions, competition, and food webs in the Fungi-fungivory pathway; some included ¹⁵N and ¹³C stable isotope tracer studies [4, 10]. Natural abundance studies of soils with the same isotopes were used to discern between food webs in forest or grassland. A synthesis paper to modernize the presentation and understanding of soil food web complexity was written with an international consortium of colleagues (in submission/review).

A variety of opportunistic papers were published related to diverse topics in soil biology and ecology. These include topics on silicon-rhizobacteria-salinity [1], organic matter dynamics and aggregate size distribution, collembola diet, biochar and phosphorous, FTIR remote sensing measurements of leaf nitrogen, microfossils in amber [13], spider cold-hardiness, and a new but common temperate forest soil flatworm.

Municipal Solid Waste Compost, compost tea foliar sprays

MSW composts and foliar sprays were prepared for strawberry and raspberry cultivation, and the results published in a series of papers from a PhD thesis (J. Hargreaves). This led to a well cited synthesis in a review of MSW compost utility in agriculture [17].

Ciliate Cell Cycles, and Eukaryote Cell Size Regulation

In continuation of the focus of Prof. J.D. Berger’s research, we progressed in understanding cell cycle control points and cell size regulation in Paramecium. We initiated studies on the molecular biology of cell cycle regulation in Paramecium, with both wild type and mutant lines. We described detailed timing of cell growth and division morphological markers in Paramecium and Sterkiella (Oxytricha) for placing molecular events and control points in the cell cycle [23, 24]. A synthesis of cell size regulation in protists was written in a PhD thesis (Adl, 1998).