Ecology and community structure of ciliated protists in two alkaline–saline Rift Valley lakes in Kenya with special emphasis on Frontonia

Ong'ondo, Geoffrey Odhiambo; Yasindi, Andrew W.; Oduor, Steve Omondi; Jost, Steffen; Schagerl, Michael; Sonntag, Bettina; Boenigk, Jens

doi:10.1093/plankt/fbt044

Cited by 29 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…Identified taxa of ciliates in lakes Alchichica and La Preciosa: Absolute one layer maximum abundance and positive samplingdate frequency (La Preciosa was sampled one time). Ong'ondo et al, 2013); however, these lakes were continuously mixing. Phialina sp.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Inter-annual ciliate distribution variation within the late stratification oxycline in a monomictic lake, Lake Alchichica (Mexico)

et al. 2016

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Deep stratified tropical water bodies pass through prolonged periods of meta-hypolimnetic anoxia, and ciliates might play a very important role in the plankton community budget there. We analyzed changes in the composition and biomass of the ciliate assemblage and other microbial loop components throughout the oxycline just at the end of stratification in a warm-monomictic lake, Lake Alchichica, Mexico (four samplings: 2006, 2010

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Inter-annual ciliate distribution variation within the late stratification oxycline in a monomictic lake, Lake Alchichica (Mexico)

et al. 2016

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“…Most ciliate species in the oligotrophic open ocean or in remote alpine lakes are even smaller and their abundances are <1 mL −1 (Sonntag et al 2011a;Weisse 2014), further increasing the theoretical distance to the next neighbour. For example, in one millilitre (mL) in a productive system, we find 550 ciliates, 7 rotifers, and 90 × 10 6 bacteria (Ong'ondo et al 2013). In contrast, in nutrientlimited systems such as remote high alpine lakes, per mL only 5 ciliates, 1,500 algae, 0.02 zooplankton and 4 × 10 5 bacteria can be observed (Kammerlander et al subm).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Ciliates in Planktonic Food Webs: Communication and Adaptive Response

Weisse

Sonntag

2016

Biocommunication of Ciliates

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Ciliates are key elements of aquatic food webs, acting as predators of bacteria, algae, other protists and even some metazoans. Planktonic ciliates are important food for zooplankton, and mixotrophic and functionally autotrophic species may significantly contribute to primary production in lakes and in the ocean. Ciliates are linked to other plankton organisms and to abiotic parameters by various direct (e.g., predation and parasitism) and indirect (e.g., nutrient release via excretion, competition for food) interactions. Communication is involved in many of those interactions, but direct evidence from the field is scarce. This is mainly because aquatic ciliates live in a dilute environment and most species occur in low cell numbers. Key processes of chemical and hydromechanical communication among ciliates, between ciliates and their predators and prey, and between ciliates and their endosymbionts have been studied in some detail in vitro. Results from microcosm experiments suggest that ciliates also cooperate with each other and use information mediated by different other organisms. Extrapolating those results obtained in small-scale laboratory experiments to the ocean level is a major challenge for future research. To this end, more communication and cooperation is needed between cell biologists, ecologists, and evolutionary biologists. In contrast to communication, adaptations of natural ciliate populations to their abiotic and biotic environment have been well documented in selected freshwater and marine species. The effect of individual environmental variables and, less often, the interactive effect of several variables on growth and survival rates of ciliates have been studied with a number of ciliate species in the laboratory and inferred from their seasonal occurrence in the field. However, more information is needed on the autecology of free-living ciliate species and their role in the planktonic community. In particular, the significance of indirect ('lateral') effects in the food web received little attention and awaits future research.

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“…at LFY. At least it can be explained from the differences among local environmental conditions; in other words, microzooplankton assemblages may reflect the response of population dynamics to environmental conditions, such as resource levels and biotic interactions, and that this may vary according to the location of the culture system [54]. According to the microzooplankton abundance, FGs and Indicator Species Analysis results, besides Brachionus plicatilis, the contaminating species in Spirulina culture systems contained amoebae in CBNS (Nuclearia simplex) and CBNP (Euplaesiobystra hypersalinica), and ciliates in LFY (mainly Frontonia didieri, Euplotes euryhalinus and Schmidingerothrix sp.).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Frontonia is commonly found in freshwater, brackish and marine biotopes [58]. Ong'ondo et al [54] summarized that Frontonia spp. are typically omnivorous ciliates that feed upon chrysophytes, cryptophytes, chlorophytes, diatoms, and also the cyanobacterium Arthrospira fusiformis.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contaminating microzooplankton in outdoor microalgal mass culture systems: An ecological viewpoint

Wang

Yuan

et al. 2016

Algal Research

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Ecology and community structure of ciliated protists in two alkaline–saline Rift Valley lakes in Kenya with special emphasis on Frontonia

Cited by 29 publications

References 36 publications

Inter-annual ciliate distribution variation within the late stratification oxycline in a monomictic lake, Lake Alchichica (Mexico)

Inter-annual ciliate distribution variation within the late stratification oxycline in a monomictic lake, Lake Alchichica (Mexico)

Ciliates in Planktonic Food Webs: Communication and Adaptive Response

Contaminating microzooplankton in outdoor microalgal mass culture systems: An ecological viewpoint

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