Romano Filomena, Pitta Paraskevi
Marine Biological Section, University of Copenhagen, Helsingør DK-3000, Denmark.
J Plankton Res. 2021 Aug 27;43(5):691-711. doi: 10.1093/plankt/fbab053. eCollection 2021 Sep-Oct.
The annual/temporal and vertical dynamics of the microbial food web (MFW) was studied in a coastal station of the oligotrophic Eastern Mediterranean Sea. The present study analyzed the changes of all components of the MFW with a specific focus on the relationships between different size classes of heterotrophic and mixotrophic ciliates with their potential prey. The MFW was dominated by heterotrophic picoplankton in all months and depths analyzed, whereas autotrophic nanoplankton took advantage in cold months with higher nutrient availability. On the other hand, mixotrophic microplankton biomass was higher in summer when nutrients and chlorophyll-a were scarce. As part of the mixotrophic biomass, mixotrophic ciliates were correlated with their "potential" prey at the surface and deep chlorophyll maximum. Large mixotrophic ciliates () were more selective in terms of potential prey, showing a correlation with . On the other hand, mixotrophic nanociliates () were correlated differently with different potential prey according to depth, supporting the idea that nanociliates could be more generalists in terms of prey selection. Because the relationships between mixotrophic ciliates and their potential prey are still poorly studied, this work represents the start for further investigation.
在贫营养的东地中海一个沿海站点研究了微生物食物网（MFW）的年度/时间和垂直动态。本研究分析了MFW所有组成部分的变化，特别关注不同大小类别的异养和混合营养纤毛虫与其潜在猎物之间的关系。在所分析的所有月份和深度中，MFW均以异养微微型浮游生物为主，而自养微型浮游生物在营养物质可用性较高的寒冷月份占优势。另一方面，在营养物质和叶绿素a稀缺的夏季，混合营养微型浮游生物的生物量较高。作为混合营养生物量的一部分，混合营养纤毛虫在表层和叶绿素最大值深度与其“潜在”猎物相关。大型混合营养纤毛虫（）在潜在猎物方面更具选择性，与 相关。另一方面，混合营养纳米纤毛虫（）根据深度与不同的潜在猎物有不同的相关性，这支持了纳米纤毛虫在猎物选择方面可能更具通用性的观点。由于混合营养纤毛虫与其潜在猎物之间的关系仍研究不足，这项工作是进一步研究的开端。
