Microzooplankton diversity: relationships of tintinnid ciliates with resources,competitors and predators from the Atlantic Coast of Morocco to the Eastern Mediterranean |
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| Institution: | 1. Marine Biological Section, University of Copenhagen, Strandpromenaden 5, 3000 Helsingør, Denmark;2. Department of Food Chemistry and Toxicology, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Vienna, Währinger Str. 40, 1090 Vienna, Austria;3. Department of Aquatic Ecology, Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW), Droevendaalsesteeg 10, Wageningen, 6708 PB, The Netherlands;4. Department of Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Technical University of Denmark, Søltofts Plads 221, 2800 Kgs Lyngby, Denmark;1. State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, College of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361102, China;2. Key Laboratory of Underwater Acoustic Communication and Marine Information Technology (Xiamen University), Ministry of Education, Xiamen 361102, China |
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| Abstract: | We examined tintinnid (loricate ciliate microzooplankton) diversity using data from 11 stations between the Moroccan upwelling system and the oligotrophic Eastern Mediterranean. Taxonomic and morphological diversity of tintinnids was compared to phytoplankton distribution and size-structure, to the abundance of competitors in the form of oligotrich ciliates, and predators as copepods. Tintinnid taxonomic diversity was estimated as numbers of species and the Shannon Index, H′; morphological diversity was quantified by substituting size classes of lorica dimensions for species. Total chlorophyll was partitioned into micro-, nano- and pico-fractions using pigment data and a size-diversity was estimated by considering the 3 size classes as 3 species. Along a west-to-east gradient, average water column concentrations of most organism groups declined approximately an order of magnitude yielding tight correlations. However, tintinnid diversity, both taxonomic and morphological, increased from the Atlantic upwelling station into the western basin of the Mediterranean, and declined slightly towards the Eastern Mediterranean, paralleling shifts in the chlorophyll size-diversity estimate. Diversity varied with absolute or relative abundance of oligotrich or copepods, but different diversity metrics were significantly correlated only with phytoplankton size-diversity. We conclude that tintinnid diversity more closely reflects resource diversity than competitive interactions or predation. |
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