Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-jbqgn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-19T04:42:54.271Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Ciliate growth rates from Plymouth Sound: comparison of direct and indirect estimates

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 October 2019

R.J.G. Leakey
Affiliation:
Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Prospect Place, The Hoe, Plymouth, PL1 3DH. Department of Biology, University of Southampton, Medical and Biological Sciences Building, Bassett Crescent East, Southampton, SO9 3TU.
P.H. Burkill
Affiliation:
Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Prospect Place, The Hoe, Plymouth, PL1 3DH.
M.A. Sleigh
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, University of Southampton, Medical and Biological Sciences Building, Bassett Crescent East, Southampton, SO9 3TU.

Abstract

The in situ growth rates of marine planktonic ciliates from Plymouth Sound were determined after fractionating the natural community into several size categories to remove predators of different sizes. Total community in situ growth rates varied from 0·01 to 0·57 d−1 according to fractionation treatment, with the four most abundant taxa, comprising three species of Strombidium, and Mesodinium rubrum, achieving maximum in situ growth rates of between 0·41 and 0·68 d−1. These values are approximately half the maximum theoretical rates calculated indirectly using an equation which relates ciliate growth to cell size and temperature. Given the conservative nature of in situ growth rate measurements, the growth rates reported here appear appropriate for a natural ciliate community growing within a nutritionally favourable environment.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aelion, C.M. & Chisholm, S.W., 1985. Effect of temperature on growth and ingestion rates of Favella sp. Journal of Plankton Research, 7, 821830.Google Scholar
Burkill, P.H., 1982. Ciliates and other microplankton components of a nearshore food-web: standing stocks and production processes. Annales de l'Institut Océanographique, Monaco, 58, supplement, 335350.Google Scholar
Capriulo, G.M., Sherr, E.B. & Sherr, B.F., 1991. Trophic behaviour and related community feeding activities of heterotrophic marine protists. In Protozoa and their role in marine processes (ed. Reid, P.C. et al.), pp. 219265. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
Coats, D.W., 1988. Duboscquella cachoni n. sp., a parasitic dinoflagellate lethal to its tintinnine host Eutintinnus pectinis . Journal of Protozoology, 35, 607617.Google Scholar
Coats, D.W. & Heinbokel, J.F., 1982. A study of reproduction and other life cycle phenomena in planktonic protists using an acridine orange fluorescence technique. Marine Biology, 67, 7179.Google Scholar
Coats, D.W. & Heisler, J.J., 1989. Spatial and temporal occurrence of the parasitic dinoflagellate Duboscquella cachoni and its tintinnine host Eutintinnus pectinis in Chesapeake Bay. Marine Biology, 101, 401409.Google Scholar
Dolan, J.R., 1991. Microphagous ciliates in mesohaline Chesapeake Bay waters: estimates of growth rates and consumption by copepods. Marine Biology, 111, 303309.Google Scholar
Dolan, J.R. & Coats, D.W., 1991. A study of feeding in predacious ciliates using prey ciliates labelled with fluorescent microspheres. Journal of Plankton Research, 13, 609627.Google Scholar
Fenchel, T., 1968. The ecology of marine microbenthos. III. The reproductive potential of ciliates. Ophelia, 5, 123136.Google Scholar
Fenchel, T., 1988. Marine plankton food chains. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 19, 1938.Google Scholar
Finlay, B.J., 1977. The dependence of reproductive rate on cell size and temperature in freshwater ciliated protozoa. Oecologia, 30, 7581.Google Scholar
Finlay, B.J., 1978. Community production and respiration by ciliated protozoa in the benthos of a small eutrophic loch. Freshwater Biology, 8, 327341.Google Scholar
Gifford, D.J., 1985. Laboratory culture of marine planktonic oligotrichs (Ciliphora, Oligotrichida). Marine Ecology Progress Series, 23, 257267.Google Scholar
Gilron, G.L. & Lynn, D.H., 1989. Estimates of in situ population growth rates of four tintinnine ciliate species near Kingston Harbour, Jamaica. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 29, 110.Google Scholar
Gold, K. & Pollingher, U., 1971. Microgamete formation and the growth rate of Tintinnopsis beroidea . Marine Biology, 11, 324329.Google Scholar
Grice, G.D., Harris, R.P., Reeve, M.R., Heinbokel, J.F. & Davis, C.O., 1980. Large-scale enclosed water-column ecosystems. An overview of foodweb I, the final CEPEX experiment. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 60, 401414.Google Scholar
Hamilton, R.D. & Preslan, J.E., 1969. Cultural characteristics of a pelagic marine hymenstome ciliate, Uronema sp. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 4, 9099.Google Scholar
Hansen, P.J., 1989. The red tide dinoflagellate Alexandrium tamarense: effects on behaviour and growth of a tintinnid ciliate. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 53, 105116.Google Scholar
Heinbokel, J.F., 1978. Studies on the functional role of tintinnids in the southern California Bight. I. Grazing and growth rates in laboratory cultures. Marine Biology, 47, 177189.Google Scholar
Heinbokel, J.F., 1987. Diel periodicities and rates of reproduction in natural populations of tintinnids in the oligotrophic waters off Hawaii, September 1982. Marine Microbial Food Webs, 2, 114.Google Scholar
Heinbokel, J.F., 1988. Reproductive rates and periodicities of oceanic tintinnine ciliates. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 47, 239248.Google Scholar
Heinbokel, J.F. & Coats, D.W., 1986. Patterns of tintinnine abundance and reproduction near the edge of seasonal pack-ice in the Weddell Sea, November 1983. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 33, 7180.Google Scholar
Hobbie, J.E., Daley, R.J. & Jasper, S., 1977. Use of Nuclepore filters for counting bacteria by fluorescence microscopy. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 33, 12251228.Google Scholar
Jonsson, P.R., 1986. Particle size selection, feeding rates and growth dynamics of marine plank-tonic oligotrichous ciliates (Ciliophora: Oligotrichina). Marine Ecology Progress Series, 33, 265277.Google Scholar
Laybourn, J.E.M. & Stewart, J.M., 1974. Effect of food consumption and temperature on reproduction in the ciliate Colpidium campylum . Journal of Zoology, 174, 277283.Google Scholar
Leakey, R.J.G., Burkill, P.H. & Sleigh, M.A., 1992. Planktonic ciliates in Southampton Water: abundance, biomass, production, and role in pelagic carbon flow. Marine Biology, 114, 6783.Google Scholar
Lee, C.C. & Fenchel, T., 1972. Studies on ciliates associated with sea ice from Antarctica. II. Temperature responses and tolerances from Antarctic, temperate and tropical habitats. Archiv für Protistenkunde, 114, 237244.Google Scholar
Leppanen, J.-M. & Bruun, J.-E., 1986. The role of pelagic ciliates including the autotrophic Mesodinium rubrum during the spring bloom of 1982 in the open northern Baltic proper. Ophelia, supplement 4, 147157.Google Scholar
Lindholm, T., 1985. Mesodinium rubrum – a unique photosynthetic ciliate. Advances in Aquatic Microbiology, 3, 148.Google Scholar
Lynn, D.H. & Montagnes, D.J.S., 1991. Global production of heterotrophic marine planktonic ciliates. In Protozoa and their role in marine processes (ed. Reid, P.C. et al.), pp. 281307. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
Marshall, S.M., 1969. Protozoa: Tintinnida. Zooplankton Sheets 117127.Google Scholar
Middlebrook, K., Emerson, C.W., Roff, J.C. & Lynn, D.H., 1987. Distribution and abundance of tintinnids in the Quoddy region of the Bay of Fundy. Canadian Journal of Zoology, 65, 594601.Google Scholar
Montagnes, D.J.S. & Lynn, D.H., 1989. The annual cycle of Mesodinium rubrum in the waters surrounding the Isles of Shoals, Gulf of Maine. Journal of Plankton Research, 11, 193201.Google Scholar
Montagnes, D.J.S., Lynn, D.H., Roff, J.C. & Taylor, W.D., 1988. The annual cycle of heterotrophic planktonic ciliates in the waters surrounding the Isles of Shoals, Gulf of Maine: an assessment of their trophic role. Marine Biology, 99, 2130.Google Scholar
Nöthig, E.-M., 1986. Tank experiments with natural plankton: the influence of light and zooplankton grazing on pelagic system structure. Ophelia, supplement 4, 179190.Google Scholar
Ohman, M.D. & Snyder, R.A., 1991. Growth kinetics of the omnivorous oligotrich ciliate Strombidium sp. Limnology and Oceanography, 36, 922935.Google Scholar
Paranjape, M.A., 1980. Occurrence and significance of resting cysts in a hyaline tintinnid, Helicostomella subulata. (Ehre.) Jorgensen. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 48, 2333.Google Scholar
Parsons, T.R., Maita, Y. & Lalli, C.M., 1984. A manual of chemical and biological methods for seawater analysis. Oxford: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
Pilling, E.D., Leakey, R.J.G. & Burkill, P.H., 1992. Marine pelagic ciliates and their productivity during summer in Plymouth coastal waters. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 72, 265268.Google Scholar
Porter, K.G. & Feig, Y.S., 1980. The use of DAPI for identifying and counting aquatic microflora. Limnology and Oceanography, 25, 943948.Google Scholar
Putt, M. & Stoecker, D.K., 1989. An experimentally determined carbon:volume ratio for marine ‘oligotrichous’ ciliates from estuarine and coastal waters. Limnology and Oceanography, 34, 10971103.Google Scholar
Rassoulzadegan, F., 1982. Dependence of grazing rate, gross growth efficiency and food size range on temperature in a pelagic oligotrichous ciliate Lohmanniella spiralis Leeg., fed on naturally occurring particulate matter. Annales de l'Institut Océanographique, Paris, 58, 177184.Google Scholar
Rivier, A., Brownlee, D.C., Sheldon, R.W. & Rassoulzadegan, F., 1985. Growth of microzooplankton: a comparative study of bactivorous zooflagellates and ciliates. Marine Microbial Food Webs, 1, 5160.Google Scholar
Robertson, J.R., 1983. Predation by estuarine zooplankton on tintinnid ciliates. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 16, 2736.Google Scholar
Rubin, H.A. & Lee, J.J., 1976. Informational energy flow as an aspect of the ecological efficiency of marine ciliates. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 62, 6991.Google Scholar
Sherr, E.B & Sherr, B.F., 1987. High rates of consumption of bacteria by pelagic ciliates. Nature, London, 325, 710711.Google Scholar
Small, E.B. & Lynn, D.H., 1985. Phylum Ciliophora (Doflein, 1901). In An illustrated guide to the protozoa (ed. Lee, J.J. et al.), pp. 393575. Lawrence, Kansas: Allen Press. [Society of Protozoologists special publication.]Google Scholar
Smetacek, V.S., 1984. Growth dynamics of a common Baltic protozooplankter: the ciliate genus Lohmanniella . Limnologica, 15, 371376.Google Scholar
Stoecker, D.K., 1991. Mixotrophy in marine planktonic ciliates: physiological and ecological aspects of plastid-retention by oligotrichs. In Protozoa and their role in marine processes (ed. Reid, P.C. et al.), pp. 161179. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
Stoecker, D.K. & Capuzzo, J.M., 1990. Predation on protozoa: its importance to zooplankton. Journal of Plankton Research, 12, 891908.Google Scholar
Stoecker, D., Davis, L.H. & Provan, A., 1983. Growth of Favella sp. (Ciliata: Tintinnina) and other microzooplankters in cages incubated in situ and comparisons to growth in vitro . Marine Biology, 75, 293302.Google Scholar
Stoecker, D.K. & Evans, G.T., 1985. Effects of protozoan herbivory and carnivory in a microplankton food web. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 25, 159167.Google Scholar
Stoecker, D.K., Silver, M.W., Michaels, A.E. & Davis, L.H., 1988. Obligate mixotrophy in Laboea strobila, a ciliate which retains chloroplasts. Marine Biology, 99, 415423.Google Scholar
Taniguchi, A. & Kawakami, R., 1983. Growth rates of ciliate Eutintinnus lususundae and Favella taraikaenis observed in the laboratory culture experiments. Bulletin of the Plankton Society of Japan, 30, 3340.Google Scholar
Taylor, W.D. & Berger, J., 1976. Growth of Colpidium campylum in monoxenic batch culture. Canadian Journal of Zoology, 54, 392398.Google Scholar
Utermohl, H., 1958. Zur vervollkommnung der quantitativen phytoplankton-methodik. Mitteilungen der Internationale Vereinigung für Theoretische und Angewandte Limnologie, 9, 138.Google Scholar
Venrick, E.L., Beers, J.R. & Heinbokel, J.F., 1977. Possible consequences of containing microplankton for physiological rate measurements. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 26, 5576.Google Scholar
Verity, P.G., 1985. Grazing, respiration, excretion, and growth rates of tintinnids. Limnology and Oceanography, 30, 12681282.Google Scholar
Verity, P.G., 1986. Growth rates of natural tintinnid populations in Narrangansett Bay. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 29, 117126.Google Scholar
Verity, P.G. & Stoecker, D., 1982. Effects of Olisthodiscus luteus on the growth and abundance of tintinnids. Marine Biology, 72, 7987.Google Scholar