Grazing by ciliates and heterotrophic nanoflagellates on picocyanobacteria in Lago Maggiore, Italy

Environmental modulation of the plankton community composition and size-structure along the eutrophic intertidal coast of the Río de la Plata estuary, Argentina

“…We also recorded microzooplanktonic species, such as Codonella cratera, Vorticella spp., and Keratella tropica, in sites where the nutrient concentrations and phytoplankton biomasses were high. In addition, aloricate ciliates are also capable of consuming smaller phytoplankton, including cyanobacteria, picoplanktonic chlorophytes, and bacteria (Callieri et al, 2002). We likewise observed that the biomass of the aloricate ciliates was associated with higher biomasses of cyanobacteria and chlorophytes and in close relationship with study sites having higher concentrations of N-NO 2 -and N-NO 3 -.…”

Grazing rates of protists in wetlands under contrasting light conditions due to floating plants

“…Stoecker 1998, Jones 2000. Bacterivory has been found to be an important mode of nutrition for heterotrophic flagellates (HF) and ciliates (Sherr & Sherr 1987, Sanders et al 1989, Callieri et al 2002, and numerous studies have also revealed the importance of mixotrophs as consumers of bacteria (e.g. Bird & Kalff 1986, Domaizon et al 2003, Tsai et al 2007.…”

Effects of predation pressure on bacterial abundance, diversity, and size-structure distribution in an oligotrophic system

“…and Conochilus spp., <25 ind L -1 ) represent the main phytoplankton consumers (Manca et al 2007). A number of ciliates (Oligotrichida, Scuticociliatida and Prostomatida, 2-50 × 10 3 cil L -1 ) (Callieri et al 2002;Callieri & Heinimaa 1997), mixotrophic flagellates (principally the voracious Ochromonas sp., Chrysocromulina sp., Katablepharis sp., Uroglena sp., and Dinobryon spp.) , and several small heterotrophic flagellates (6.5 × 10 3 cell mL -1 ) (Callieri & Heinimaa 1997) comprise the intermediate level (prey for the zooplankton but voracious predators of bacteria) of the system, while bacteria represent the bottom of the food chain.…”