For the most part, parasitic protozoans live in a fairly constant environment. Temperature fluctuates very little, or not at all, inside the host, desiccation is not a risk, and food is in constant supply. Free-living protists, on the other hand, face short- or long-term changes in temperature, aquatic acidity, food supply, moisture, and light. Many protozoans respond to adverse environmental conditions by encysting: they secrete a thick, tough wall around themselves and effectively enter a quiescent state comparable to hibernation. The ability to form a resistant cyst is widespread among diverse protistan groups and probably developed early in their evolutionary history. Resting cysts also are easily carried by the wind and form an important means of dispersal for species that live in the soil or are common in ephemeral ponds and pools. In climates with distinct cold seasons, the cyst may be an important phase in the annual life cycle.

The cyst wall is composed of a varying number of layers, the components of which are dependent on the species. During the encystment process, the protozoan cell undergoes a series of changes that considerably reduce the complexity of the organism. Flagellated organisms and ciliates lose their flagella and cilia, the contractile vacuole and food vacuoles disappear, and the distribution of organelles within the cell may be reorganized. In some species the cell volume reduces considerably. These changes are reversed during the process of excystment.

Certain marine planktonic tintinnids are programmed to break out of their cysts en masse at times of the year when the food supply is abundant. Helicostomella subulata, for example, excysts in June in temperate waters and becomes numerous from July through October. It encysts again in October, sinking to the sediments, where it remains until the following year. The cyst is a normal part of the annual life cycle, and even laboratory populations of this ciliate encyst at the same time as the natural population. This type of life strategy pattern has been demonstrated in several other ciliates and in some amoebae.

For soil-dwelling protozoans the cyst is an important refuge when soil moisture disappears or when soil water becomes frozen. In soils that are subject to freezing and periodic short-term thawing, the protozoans rapidly excyst, feed, and reproduce and then encyst again when soil water becomes temporarily unavailable to them.

The cyst plays an important role in the life cycles of several parasitic protozoans that have a free-living dispersal stage, such as Entamoeba histolytica and Cryptosporidium. The cysts are excreted in the host’s feces and survive in water or soil. Humans are usually infected through drinking contaminated water or eating raw fruit and vegetables grown where human feces are used as fertilizer.

Some freshwater protozoans, especially the ciliates Spirostomum, Loxodes, and Plagiopyla, avoid unpleasant conditions, especially lack of oxygen, by abandoning their bottom-dwelling way of life and swimming upward to position themselves at a level where some oxygen is available but where they are not in direct competition with planktonic species. They remain there until oxygen again becomes available on the lake bottom, at which time they migrate downward.

The widespread occurrence of mixotrophy involving algal symbiosis and the retention and sequestration of the plastids of photosynthetic prey by planktonic protozoans is believed to be an adaptation to waters where food is limited. Ciliates that retain plastids appear to be far more common in waters where food is scarce than in productive waters. An inverse relationship exists between this form of mixotrophy and the productivity of the ecosystem.