Spatial distribution of planktonic ciliates in the western Pacific Ocean: along the transect from Shenzhen (China) to Po
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RESEARCH PAPER
Spatial distribution of planktonic ciliates in the western Pacific Ocean: along the transect from Shenzhen (China) to Pohnpei (Micronesia) Hungchia Huang1 · Jinpeng Yang2 · Shixiang Huang1,3 · Bowei Gu1,3 · Ying Wang1 · Lei Wang4 · Nianzhi Jiao1,3 · Dapeng Xu1,3 Received: 22 June 2020 / Accepted: 23 September 2020 © Ocean University of China 2020
Abstract Planktonic ciliates have been recognized as major consumers of nano- and picoplankton in pelagic ecosystems, playing pivotal roles in the transfer of matter and energy in the microbial loop. However, due to the difficulties in identification, the species composition of ciliate assemblages, especially for the small, fragile, and naked species that usually dominate the ciliate communities in the oceanic waters, remains largely unknown. In the present study, 22 stations along the transect from Shenzhen (China) to Pohnpei (Micronesia) were sampled for the enumeration of picoplankton and nanoflagellates. In addition, pigment analysis of major phytoplankton groups along with the measurements of environmental variables including temperature, salinity, and nutrients were also carried out. Ciliates were identified at species level using quantitative protargol stain to reveal the species composition and their distribution patterns from off-shore to open ocean. Ciliate abundance was positively correlated with phosphate, silicate, and pico-sized pigmented eukaryotes (PPEs), whereas the biomass was closely related with PPEs, heterotrophic nanoflagellates, and chlorophytes. The combination of silicate and pigmented nanoflagellates was identified as the major factor driving the ciliate community composition. The close relationship between silicate and ciliate abundance and community structure needs further validation based on more data collected from oceanic waters. Our study showed the necessity of using techniques that can reveal the community composition at higher taxonomic resolutions in future studies on ciliates. Keywords Community structure · Distribution pattern · Diversity · Nanoflagellates · Quantitative protargol stain
Introduction Hungchia Huang and Jinpeng Yang have contributed equally to this work. Edited by Chengchao Chen. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s42995-020-00075-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Dapeng Xu [email protected] 1
State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, College of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361102, China
2
School of Marine Sciences, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510006, China
3
Fujian Key Laboratory of Marine Carbon Sequestration, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361102, China
4
College of the Environment and Ecology, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361102, China
Microbial eukaryotes play a variety of crucial roles in marine ecosystems as primary producers, predators, decomposers, and parasites (Caron et al. 2017; Fenchel 2008). The geographic distribution and diversity
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