RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 The windblown: possible explanations for dinophyte DNA in forest soils JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 2020.08.07.242388 DO 10.1101/2020.08.07.242388 A1 Gottschling, Marc A1 Czech, Lucas A1 Mahé, Frédéric A1 Adl, Sina A1 Dunthorn, Micah YR 2020 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/08/10/2020.08.07.242388.abstract AB Dinophytes are widely distributed in marine- and fresh-waters, but have yet to be conclusively documented in terrestrial environments. Here we evaluated the presence of these protists from an environmental DNA metabarcoding dataset of Neotropical rainforest soils. Using a phylogenetic placement approach with a reference alignment and tree, we showed that the numerous sequencing reads that were assigned to the dinophytes did not associate with taxonomy, environmental preference, nutritional mode, or dormancy. All the dinophytes in the soils are most likely windblown dispersal units of aquatic species, and are not biologically active residents of terrestrial environments.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.