State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, College of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China; Fujian Key Laboratory of Marine Carbon Sequestration, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361102, China.
State Key Laboratory of Tropical Oceanography, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510301, China.
Mar Pollut Bull. 2021 Jun;167:112341. doi: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2021.112341. Epub 2021 Apr 14.
Ciliates comprise essential components of microzooplankton in diverse marine environments. However, the extent to which environmental variables shape the distribution of planktonic ciliates in complex estuarine systems remains unclear. Here, 52 samples were collected from the Pearl River Estuary, China to reveal the influence of environmental variables on planktonic ciliate communities. Distinct community compositions of ciliates were found in three identified water masses: Pearl River diluted water mass, South China Sea surface water mass, and South China Sea bottom water mass. Significant differences in abundance, biomass, cell size, and oral diameter structure of ciliates were also detected among the three water masses. The partial Mantel test showed that water mass (as represented by water temperature and salinity) surpassed other environmental variables to be the primary factor driving the dynamics of the ciliate community. This study revealed the controlling mechanisms of planktonic ciliate communities in a subtropical, hydrographically complex estuarine ecosystem.
纤毛虫是各种海洋环境中微浮游动物的重要组成部分。然而，环境变量在多大程度上塑造了复杂河口系统中浮游纤毛虫的分布仍然不清楚。本研究从中国珠江口采集了 52 个样本，以揭示环境变量对浮游纤毛虫群落的影响。在三个已确定的水团中发现了纤毛虫的独特群落组成：珠江稀释水团、南海表水团和南海底水团。在这三个水团中，纤毛虫的丰度、生物量、细胞大小和口器直径结构也存在显著差异。部分 Mantel 检验表明，水团（以水温盐度表示）超过其他环境变量，成为驱动纤毛虫群落动态的主要因素。本研究揭示了亚热带水文复杂河口生态系统中浮游纤毛虫群落的控制机制。
