TY - JOUR
TI - The Impacts of Crustacean Zooplankton on a Natural Ciliate Community: a Short-term Incubation Experiment
AU - Li, Jing
AU - Yang, Kun
AU - Chen, Feizhou
AU - Lu, Wenxuan
AU - Fang, Ting
AU - Zhao, Xiuxia
AU - Li, Haiyang
AU - Cui, Kai
TI - The Impacts of Crustacean Zooplankton on a Natural Ciliate Community: a Short-term Incubation Experiment
AB - Direct and indirect effects of crustacean zooplankton (cladocerans and copepods) are important regulators of ciliate communities, especially in eutrophic systems. However, it is not clear whether pseudodiaptomids (e.g., Schmackeria), one of the dominant calanoid copepods in Chinese lakes, effectively impacts natural ciliate communities. The impacts of small-bodied cladocerans (e.g., Bosmina) on ciliates are also controversial.
We performed an incubation experiment using winter lake water from Lake Chaohu to assess the structuring effects that crustacean zooplankton have on natural ciliate populations. The presence and absence of cladocerans (Bosmina sp.) and copepods (Schmackeria inopinus) were alternated in four treatments.
Both Bosmina sp. and Schmackeria inopinus had substantial impacts on ciliate abundance, biomass, and community structure. The response of ciliates was different in the presence of Bosmina sp. compared with Schmackeria inopinus and varied among categories such as the ciliate population, relative body size and functional feeding group. Our results also highlight the importance of interference and exploitative competition among metazooplankton groups.
VL - 2017
IS - Volume 56, Issue 4
PY - 2017
SN - 0065-1583
C1 - 1689-0027
SP - 289
EP - 301
DO - 10.4467/16890027AP.17.025.7827
UR - https://ejournals.eu/en/journal/acta-protozoologica/article/the-impacts-of-crustacean-zooplankton-on-a-natural-ciliate-community-a-short-term-incubation-experiment
KW - ciliates
KW - small-bodied cladocerans
KW - pseudodiaptomid copepods
KW - suppression impacts
KW - functional groups