Microbial processes in a high-latitude fjord (Kongsfjorden, Svalbard): II. Ciliates and dinoflagellates
By Lena Seuthe, Kriss Rokkan Iversen, F. Narcy. Polar Biology, 2011
107 citations recorded by the source corpus.
The composition and ecological role of ciliates and dinoflagellates were investigated at one station in Kongsfjorden, Svalbard, during six consecutive field campaigns between March and December 2006. Total ciliate and dinoflagellate abundance mirrored the seasonal progression of phytoplankton, peaking with 5.8 × 104 cells l−1 in April at an average chlorophyll a concentration of 10 μg l−1. Dinoflagellates were more abundant than ciliates, dominated by small athecates. Among ciliates, aloricate oligotrichs dominated the assemblage. A large fraction (>60%) of ciliates and dinoflagellates contained chloroplasts in spring and summer. The biomass of the purely heterotrophic fraction of the ciliate and dinoflagellate community (protozooplankton) was with 14 μg C l−1 highest in conjunction with the phytoplankton spring bloom in April. Growth experiments revealed similar specific growth rates for heterotrophic ciliates and dinoflagellates (<0–0.8 d−1). Food availability may have controlled the protozooplankton assemblage in winter, while copepods may have exerted a strong control during the post-bloom period. Calculations of the potential grazing rates of the protozooplankton indicated its ability to control or heavily impact the phytoplankton stocks at most times. The results show that ciliates and dinoflagellates were an important component of the pelagic food web in Kongsfjorden and need to be taken into account when discussing the fate of phytoplankton and biogeochemical cycling in Arctic marine ecosystems.
Subfields: Ecology, Oceanography
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/aca18c23377ed5a38024450588dd870f5dd009c2
How researchers see this paper
The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.
In Ecology
In Oceanography
Citations in the corpus
- Timing of reproductive events in the marine copepod Calanus glacialis: a pan-Arctic perspective (2013, background): “Chlorophyll a (Chl a ) concentration measured in 2006 is based on fluorometrical analysis of filtered sea-water samples and is published previously by Seuthe et al. (2011).”
- Spring bloom dynamics in Kongsfjorden, Svalbard: nutrients, phytoplankton, protozoans and primary production (2012, background): “To learn more about the onset of the productive season, production measurements are essential as biomass build-up seen as high Chl-a can be delayed depending on grazing pressure.”
- The importance of tidewater glaciers for marine mammals and seabirds in Svalbard, Norway (2014, background): “Protozoan(ciliates andheterotrophic/mixotrophicdi-no fl agellates) biomass peaks in conjunction with the phytoplankton spring bloom and is controlled by copepod grazing during the summer months, while food availability constrains population size in winter (Seuthe et al., 2011).”