Planktonic ciliate community structure in shallow lakes of lowland Western Europe

Abstract

This article appeared in a journal published by Elsevier. The attached copy is furnished to the author for internal non-commercial research and education use, including for instruction at the authors institution and sharing with colleagues.Other uses, including reproduction and distribution, or selling or licensing copies, or posting to personal, institutional or third party websites are prohibited. AbstractTemperate shallow meso-to eutrophic lakes can exist in one of two alternative states with contrasting foodwebs, referred to as the clear-water and the turbid state. We describe the planktonic ciliate communities of such lakes based on a survey of 66 northwestern European lakes. Ciliates were enumerated and identified to species level according to the quantitative protargol staining technique. Ciliate biomass was on average twice as high in the turbid than in the clear-water lakes. The ciliate communities were dominated by oligotrichs and protostomatids, and no differences in functional composition or ␣-diversity could be detected between turbid and clear-water lakes, although ␤-diversity tended to be higher in the latter. At the species level, however, community structure strongly differed between turbid and clear-water lakes, and several indicator species could be identified for the different lake categories. Variation partitioning showed that nutrient status did not explain ciliate community structure independent of the alternative states, while lake area was identified as an additional structuring factor for the ciliate communities. These results stress the importance of the ecosystem structure in shaping ciliate communities in temperate shallow lakes and suggest that nutrient status has little direct effect on ciliate community structure in such lakes.

Ciliate community structure and interactions within the planktonic food web in two alpine lakes of contrasting transparency

“…However, ciliate assemblages are still an underexplored group in those lakes (Wille et al, 1999;Sonntag, Summerer & Sommaruga, 2011), even though within the microbial food web they are ecologically important as major link to higher trophic levels (Sommer et al, 2012;Lischke et al, 2016). Planktonic ciliate assemblages of oligo-and mesotrophic lowland lakes characteristically include small algivorous prostomatid and oligotrich ciliates and their community and vertical distribution patterns are related to food availability, predation and abiotic factors (Weisse & M€ uller, 1998;Sonntag et al, 2006;Van Wichelen et al, 2013;Posch et al, 2015). In the clear alpine Gossenk€ ollesee (Austrian Central Alps), only Balanion planctonicum, Urotricha cf.…”

Molecular Data Reveal a Cryptic Diversity in the Genus Urotricha (Alveolata, Ciliophora, Prostomatida), a Key Player in Freshwater Lakes, With Remarks on Morphology, Food Preferences, and Distribution

“…The quantitative protargol stain (QPS) does not only reveal species-specific cytologic characters (e.g., ciliary pattern and nuclear apparatus) but allows for estimating taxon abundance (Skibbe, 1994). The application of the QPS therefore provides a useful tool for ecological plankton studies (e.g., Pfister et al, 2002;Sonntag et al, 2006Sonntag et al, , 2011Sonntag et al, , 2017Van Wichelen et al, 2013;Kammerlander et al, 2016).…”

Stress and Protists: No life without stress

“…Their abundance and diversity in freshwater plankton ranges between 2.0 and 130 ind. mL −1 , comprising either a few or wide more than 100 morphospecies (e.g., Müller et al 1991; Sonntag et al 2006, 2011a; Van Wichelen et al 2013; Wille et al 1999). Moreover, recent phylogenetic investigations revealed a generally high genetic protist diversity in lakes (Kammerlander et al 2015; Stoeck et al 2014; Triadó-Margarit and Casamajor 2012).…”