Soil protist communities across desertification and ecological restoration gradients in the Brazilian semiarid
This project investigates how desertification and long-term ecological restoration shape soil protist communities in the Brazilian semiarid region. Soil samples were collected from native vegetation, degraded desertified soils, and areas restored for nearly two decades through terracing and green manuring in Gilbues, Piaui Brazil. Protist communities were characterized using high-throughput sequencing of the 18S rRNA gene (V4 region) on the Illumina MiSeq platform. The dataset aims to evaluate how land degradation and restoration influence protist diversity, community composition, trophic structure, and ecological interactions in dryland soils.