Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-15T15:17:23.632Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Seasonal shift in community pattern of periphytic ciliates and its environmental drivers in coastal waters of the Yellow Sea, northern China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 October 2014

Wei Zhang
Affiliation:
Institute of Evolution and Marine Biodiversity, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266003, China
Henglong Xu*
Affiliation:
Institute of Evolution and Marine Biodiversity, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266003, China
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: H. Xu, Institute of Evolution and Marine Biodiversity, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266003, China email: [email protected]

Abstract

Ciliates are a primary component of the periphyton microfauna and play a crucial role in the functioning of microbial food webs. Seasonal variation in community structures of periphytic ciliate communities was studied, using glass slides as an artificial substratum, during a 1-year cycle (August 2011–July 2012) in coastal waters of the Yellow Sea, northern China. Samples were collected monthly at a depth of 1 m from four sampling stations. A total of 144 ciliate species representing 78 genera, 43 families, 17 orders and eight classes were recorded. Among these species, 31 distributed in all four seasons, while 11, 11, 13 and two forms occurred only in spring, summer, autumn and winter season, respectively. The species number and total abundance peaked in spring and autumn, with minimum values in winter. Ciliate community structures differed significantly between seasons, and were significantly correlated with the changes in environmental variables, especially temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen (DO) and the nutrients. Of 36 dominant species (top 15 ranked contributors in each season), nine (e.g. Pseudovorticella paracratera, Trochilia minuta and Zoothamnium sp.) were significantly correlated with pH, DO or nutrients. Species richness, evenness and diversity measures were significantly correlated with temperature, pH, DO or soluble reactive phosphates. Results demonstrated that periphytic ciliates exhibited a clear seasonal variation in community structures in response to environmental conditions and potentially might be used as a robust bioindicator for assessing environmental quality status in coastal waters.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2014 

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

REFERENCES

Agamaliev, F.G. (1974) Ciliates of the solid surface overgrowth of the Caspian Sea. Acta Protozoology 13, 5383.Google Scholar
Anderson, M.J., Gorley, R.N. and Clarke, K.R. (2008) PERMANOVA+ for PRIMER guide to software and statistical methods. Plymouth: PRIMER-E Ltd.Google Scholar
APHA (1992) Standard methods for examination of water and waste water. 18th edition. Washington, DC: American Public Health Association.Google Scholar
Berger, H. (1999) Monograph of the Oxytrichidae (Ciliophora, Hypotrichia). Monographiae Biologicae 78, 11080.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cairns, J. Jr and Henebry, M.S. (1982) Interactive and noninteractive protozoa colonization process. In Cairns, J. Jr (ed.) Artificial substrates. Ann Arbor, MI: Ann Arbor Science Publishers, pp. 2370.Google Scholar
Clarke, K.R. and Ainsworth, M. (1993) A method of linking multivariate community structure to environmental variables. Marine Ecology Progress Series 92, 205219.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clarke, K.R. and Gorley, R.N. (2006) User manual/tutorial. Plymouth: PRIMER-E Ltd.Google Scholar
Coppellotti, O. and Matarazzo, P. (2000) Ciliate colonization of artificial substrates in the Lagoon of Venice. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 80, 419427.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fischer, H., Sachse, A. and Steinberg, C.E.W. and Pusch, M. (2002) Differential retention and utilization of dissolved organic carbon by bacteria in river sediments. Limnology and Oceanography 47, 17021711.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gong, J., Song, W. and Warren, A. (2005) Periphytic ciliate colonization: annual cycle and responses to environmental conditions. Aquatic Microbial Ecology 39, 159170.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ismael, A.A. and Dorgham, M.M. (2003) Ecological indices as a tool for assessing pollution in El-Dekhaila Harbour (Alexandria, Egypt). Oceanologia 45, 121131.Google Scholar
Jiang, J., Wu, S. and Shen, Y. (2007) Effects of seasonal succession and water pollution on the protozoan community structure in a eutrophic lake. Chemosphere 66, 523532.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jiang, Y., Xu, H., Hu, X., Zhu, M., Al-Rasheid, K.A.S. and Warren, A. (2011) An approach to analyzing spatial patterns of planktonic ciliate communities for monitoring water quality in Jiaozhou Bay, northern China. Marine Pollution Bulletin 62, 227235.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kathol, M., Norf, H., Arndt, H. and Weitere, M. (2009) Effects of temperature increase on the grazing of planktonic bacteria by biofilm-dwelling consumers. Aquatic Microbial Ecology 55, 6579.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kchaou, N., Elloumi, J., Drira, Z., Hamza, A., Ayadi, H., Bouain, A. and Aleya, L. (2009) Distribution of ciliates in relation to environmental factors along the coastline of the Gulf of Gabes, Tunisia. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science 83, 414424.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lynn, D.H. (2008) The ciliated protozoa. Characterization, classification and guide to the literature. 3rd edition. Dordrecht: Springer.Google Scholar
Magurran, A.E. (1991) Ecological diversity and its measurement. London: Chapman and Hall.Google Scholar
Morin, S., Duong, T.T., Dabrin, A., Coynel, A., Herlory, O., Baudrimont, M., Delmas, F., Durrieu, G., Schäfer, J., Winterton, P., Blanc, G. and Coste, M. (2008) Long-term survey of heavy-metal pollution, biofilm contamination and diatom community structure in the Riou Mort watershed South-West France. Environmental Pollution 151, 532542.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Persoone, G. (1968) Ecologie des Infusoires dans les salissures de substrates immerges dans un port de mer, I. Le film primaire et le recouvrement primaire. Protistologia 4, 187194.Google Scholar
Railkin, A.I. (1998) The pattern of recovery of disturbed microbial communities inhabiting hard substrates. Hydrobiologia 385, 4757.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Risse-Buhl, U. and Küsel, K. (2009) Colonization dynamics of biofilm-associated ciliate morphotypes at different flow velocities. European Journal of Protistology 45, 6476.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shi, X., Liu, X., Liu, G., Sun, Z. and Xu, H. (2012) An approach to analyze spatial patterns of protozoan communities for assessing water quality in the Hangzhou section of Jinghang Grant Canal in China. Environment Science and Pollution Research 19, 739747.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Song, W., Warren, A. and Hu, X. (2009) Free-living ciliates in the Bohai and Yellow Seas, China. Beijing: Science Press [in both Chinese and English].Google Scholar
Warwick, R.M. and Clarke, K.R. (2001) Practical measures of marine biodiversity based on relatedness. Oceanography and Marine Biology 39, 207231.Google Scholar
Weitere, M., Schmidt-Denter, K. and Arndt, H. (2003) Laboratory experiments on the impact of biofilms on the plankton of a large river. Freshwater Biology 48, 19831992.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Xu, H., Song, W., Warren, A., Al-Rasheid, K.A.S., Al-Farraj, S.A., Gong, J. and Hu, X. (2008) Planktonic protist communities in a semi-enclosed mariculture pond: structural variation and correlation with environmental conditions. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 88, 13531362.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Xu, H., Min, G.S., Choi, J.K., Jung, J.H. and Park, M.H. (2009a) An approach to analyses of periphytic ciliate colonization for monitoring water quality using a modified artificial substrate in Korean coastal waters. Marine Pollution Bulletin 58, 12781285.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Xu, H., Min, G.S., Choi, J.K., Kim, S.J., Jung, J.H. and Lim, B.J. (2009b) An approach to analyses of periphytic ciliate communities for monitoring water quality using a modified artificial substrate in Korean coastal waters. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 89, 669679.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Xu, H., Jiang, Y., Al-Rasheid, K.A.S., Al-Farraj, S.A. and Song, W. (2011a) Application of an indicator based on taxonomic relatedness of ciliated protozoan assemblages for marine environmental assessment. Environment Science and Pollution Research 18, 12131221.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Xu, H., Zhang, W., Jiang, Y., Min, G.S. and Choi, J.K. (2011b) An approach to identifying potential surrogates of periphytic ciliate communities for monitoring water quality of coastal waters. Ecological Indicators 11, 12281234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Xu, H., Zhang, W., Jiang, Y., Zhu, M., Al-Rasheid, K.A.S., Warren, A. and Song, W. (2011c) An approach to determining sampling effort for analyzing biofilm-dwelling ciliate colonization using an artificial substratum in coastal waters. Biofouling 27, 357366.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Xu, H., Zhang, W., Jiang, Y., Zhu, M. and Al-Rasheid, K.A.S. (2012a) Influence of sampling sufficiency on biodiversity analysis of microperiphyton communities for marine bioassessment. Environment Science Pollution Research 19, 540549.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Xu, H., Zhang, W., Jiang, Y., Zhu, M. and Al-Rasheid, K.A.S. (2012b) Sampling sufficiency for analyzing taxonomic relatedness of periphytic ciliate communities using an artificial substratum in coastal waters. Journal of Sea Research 72, 2227.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Xu, H., Zhang, W., Jiang, Y., Zhu, M. and Al-Resheid, K.A.S. (2012c) An approach to analyzing influence of enumeration time periods on detecting ecological features of microperiphyton communities for marine bioassessment. Ecological Indicators 18, 5057.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Xu, M., Cao, H., Xie, P., Deng, D., Feng, W. and Xu, J. (2005) Use of PFU protozoan community structural and functional characteristics in assessment of water quality in a large, highly polluted freshwater lake in China. Journal of Environmental Monitoring 7, 670674.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhang, W., Xu, H., Jiang, Y., Zhu, M. and Al-Resheid, K.A.S. (2012a) Colonization dynamics in trophic-functional structure of periphytic protist communities in coastal waters. Marine Biology 159, 735748.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhang, W., Xu, H., Jiang, Y., Zhu, M. and Al-Resheid, K.A.S. (2012b) Influence of enumeration time periods on analyzing colonization features and taxonomic relatedness of periphytic ciliate communities using an artificial substratum for marine bioassessment. Environment Science and Pollution Research 19, 36193627.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zhang, W., Xu, H., Jiang, Y., Zhu, M. and Al-Resheid, K.A.S. (2013) Colonization dynamics of periphytic ciliate communities on an artificial substratum in coastal waters of the Yellow Sea. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 93, 5768.CrossRefGoogle Scholar