The abundance and diversity of planktonic ciliates in 1 2 boreal lakes of varying trophic state fig: 6 tab: 6

Zingel, Priit; Huitu, Eeva; Mäkelä, Suvi; Арвола, Лаури

doi:10.1127/archiv-hydrobiol/155/2002/315

Cited by 24 publications

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“…The water is slightly alkaline; the monthly mean pH ranged from 7.6 to 8.5, salinity ranged from 227 mg L 21 to 370 mg L 21 , and the concentrations of chlorides and sulphates ranged from 9 mg L 21 to 14 mg L 21 and from 17 mg L 21 to 21 mg L 21 , respectively. The average total phosphorus concentration is 54 mg L 21 , total nitrogen concentration is 1.6 mg L 21 , and the mean Secchi depth is 1.1 m (Zingel and Nõ ges 2010). During the growing season, Secchi depth does not usually exceed 1 m.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…This makes ciliates excellent food for fish larvae in Võ rtsjä rv. Oligotrichs, prostomatids, and scuticociliates are often reported as a customary component of pelagic protozooplankton (Zingel et al 2002). All the common ciliate species found in Võ rtsjä rv are also frequently reported from other freshwater lakes (Foissner et al 1999).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The ice cover lasts from November to April (135 d on average). Homothermy prevails in Võ rtsjä rv throughout the year (Zingel and Nõ ges 2010). The water is slightly alkaline; the monthly mean pH ranged from 7.6 to 8.5, salinity ranged from 227 mg L 21 to 370 mg L 21 , and the concentrations of chlorides and sulphates ranged from 9 mg L 21 to 14 mg L 21 and from 17 mg L 21 to 21 mg L 21 , respectively.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Our previous investigations have shown that in Võ rtsjä rv the ciliate community is extremely rich, abundant, and usually . 50% of the whole zooplankton biomass consists of ciliates (Zingel and Nõ ges 2010). Ciliates move more slowly than most of the metazooplankters and should be easily caught by young larval fish.…”

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Ciliates as the crucial food source of larval fish in a shallow eutrophic lake

Zingel

Paaver

Karus

et al. 2012

Limnology & Oceanography

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We assessed feeding of planktivorous fish larvae on ciliate protozooplankton in shallow eutrophic Lake Võ rtsjä rv, Estonia to determine whether ciliates are an important part of larval fish diet. We collected larvae of the most common fish species and examined their gut contents by gut segmentation and epifluorescence microscopy. Ciliates were present in the gut of all fish larvae. Gut segmentation analysis showed clear differences in food composition between gut quarters. The hard-bodied food items were quite evenly distributed in the gut, but the soft-bodied ciliates and rotifers were present only in the first gut quarters. Neglecting differences in prey digestion rate leads to underestimation of diet amount and composition and, especially, to underestimation of the role of protists in food. In Võ rtsjä rv, ciliates account for , 60% of the total carbon biomass consumed by fish larvae. The food requirement of fish larvae during first feeding stages (May-Jun) would not be met without consumption of ciliates. Hjort (1914) was first to put forth the so-called 'critical period' hypothesis: the availability of suitable prey at the time when larval fish switch from endogenous to exogenous feeding determine their survival and, thus, the fish yearclass strength. This hypothesis and the further refined theories that derive from it, are all based primarily on the consumption of crustacean prey. Up to date, there are very few studies that have considered the direct protist consumption by fish larvae. Most planktonic protozoa are fragile and therefore get easily degraded in the fish gut. Thus, protist ingestion may have been neglected in the past because of difficulties describing the gut contents of fish larvae, due to a high degree of degradation of the food and the use of normal techniques of microscopy for species identification (Fukami et al. 1999).It has been suggested that most of the coastal waters do not contain enough (metazoan) prey to support larval growth and survival (MacKenzie et al. 1990). Also, some studies indicate that the guts of field-caught larvae often appear empty (van der Meeren and Naess 1993). One explanation for these paradoxes (i.e., apparent low prey levels and empty guts) is that food is sufficiently abundant, but easily digested and therefore not detected by researchers (Figueiredo et al. 2005;Montagnes et al. 2010). One such possible food source that larval fish can ingest and quickly digest is protozoa. If this is the case, the focus on metazoan prey has resulted in fisheries scientists overlooking a key trophic linkage (Montagnes et al. 2010).There have been only sparse field studies concerning protozoa as food of the fish larvae, and most of them have focused only on the hard-bodied protists (Watson and Davis 1989). Only few have tried to estimate the importance of soft-bodied protozoans in the larval diet (Fukami et al. 1999;Nagano et al. 2000;Figueiredo et al. 2005). Modern fluorescence microscopy approaches have been rarely used in this specific research field. Lessard et al...

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 92%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Ciliates as the crucial food source of larval fish in a shallow eutrophic lake

Zingel

Paaver

Karus

et al. 2012

Limnology & Oceanography

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“…Dominance by oligotrich and protostomatid ciliates is observed in the pelagic of freshwater lakes worldwide (Galbraith and Burns 2010;Mathes and Arndt 1995;Mayer et al 1997;Salbrechter and Arndt 1994;Zingel 1999) and classified by Foissner et al (1991) as Oligotrichetea. Some authors have stated that dominance by oligotrichs is mainly characteristic for oligo-mesotrophic lakes with a low organic matter concentration (Beaver and Crisman 1982;Beaver et al 1988;Carrias et al 1998;Zingel et al 2002). Here, this community dominated irrespective of nutrient status and state.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Planktonic ciliate community structure in shallow lakes of lowland Western Europe

Wichelen

Johansson

Vanormelingen

et al. 2013

European Journal of Protistology

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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.

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Microbial Food Webs in Boreal Humic Lakes and Reservoirs: Ciliates as a Major Factor Related to the Dynamics of the Most Active Bacteria

2005

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In order to assess the factors that determine the dynamics of bacteria with high nucleic acid content in aquatic systems, we (i) conducted 24-h in situ dialysis experiments, involving different fractions of plankton and unfiltered water and (ii) examined empirical relationships between bacteria and both abiotic factors and protists, in boreal humic freshwaters (reservoir and lakes) in the James Bay region (Québec, Canada). Bacteria were subdivided into two subgroups on the basis of their nucleic acid content assessed by flow cytometry. The abundance of bacteria with the highest nucleic acid content and high light scatter (HNA-hs) was significantly correlated, across sites, to bacterial production, whereas bacteria with lower nucleic acid content (LNA) and total bacteria were not. In addition, HNA-hs growth was higher and more variable than LNA growth, indicating that HNA-hs were the most dynamic bacteria. Heterotrophic nanoflagellate and ciliate biomass represented, on average, 5 and 13% of bacterial biomass, respectively. Both in ambient waters and in experiments, ciliates were significantly and negatively correlated with bacteria, whereas heterotrophic nanoflagellates, likely under the grazing pressure from ciliates and metazooplankton, were not. Among ciliates, Cyclidium glaucoma appeared to play an important role. Its growth was significantly and negatively correlated to that of HNA-hs but not to that of LNA. In ambient waters, the abundance of this species explained 56% of the variations in HNA-hs abundance and only 27% of those for LNA. The abundances of total bacteria and LNA significantly increased with chlorophyll a, whereas those of HNA-hs did not. In addition, during the experiments, the estimated potential losses of HNA-hs significantly increased with the initial abundance of C. glaucoma. These results suggest selective removal of the most dynamic bacteria by C. glaucoma and indicate that ciliates may play an important role in the dynamics of active bacteria in natural waters. These findings suggest the existence, within the aquatic microbial food webs, of keystone species that are very important in regulating the activity structure of bacteria.

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The abundance and diversity of planktonic ciliates in 1 2 boreal lakes of varying trophic state fig: 6 tab: 6

Cited by 24 publications

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Ciliates as the crucial food source of larval fish in a shallow eutrophic lake

Ciliates as the crucial food source of larval fish in a shallow eutrophic lake

Planktonic ciliate community structure in shallow lakes of lowland Western Europe

Microbial Food Webs in Boreal Humic Lakes and Reservoirs: Ciliates as a Major Factor Related to the Dynamics of the Most Active Bacteria

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