Novarino G, Warren A, Butler H, Lambourne G, Boxshall A, Bateman J, Kinner N E, Harvey R W, Mosse R A, Teltsch B
Department of Zoology, Natural History Museum, London, UK.
FEMS Microbiol Rev. 1997 Jul;20(3-4):261-75. doi: 10.1111/j.1574-6976.1997.tb00313.x.
Eukaryotic microorganisms (protists) are a very important component of microbial communities inhabiting groundwater aquifers. This is not unexpected when one considers that many protists feed heterotrophically, by means of either phagotrophy (bacterivory) or osmotrophy. Protistan numbers are usually low (< 10(2) per g dw of aquifer material) in pristine, uncontaminated aquifers but may increase by several orders of magnitude in aquifers subject to organic pollution. Small flagellates (typically 2-3(5) microns in size in situ) are by far the dominant protists in aquifers, although amoebae and occasionally ciliates may also be present in much lower numbers. Although a wealth of new taxonomic information is waiting to be brought to light, interest in the identity of aquifer protists is not exclusively academic. If verified, the following hypotheses may prove to be important towards our understanding of the functioning of microbial communities in aquifers: (1) Differences in swimming behavior between species of flagellates lead to feeding heterogeneity and niche differentiation, implying that bacterivorous flagellates graze on different subsets of the bacterial community, and therefore play different roles in controlling bacterial densities. (2) Bacterivorous flagellates grazing on bacteria capable of degrading organic compounds have an indirect effect on the overall rates of biodegradation.
真核微生物（原生生物）是栖息于地下水蓄水层的微生物群落的一个非常重要的组成部分。当人们考虑到许多原生生物通过吞噬营养（噬菌作用）或渗透营养进行异养摄食时，这并不意外。在原始、未受污染的蓄水层中，原生生物数量通常较低（每克干重蓄水层物质中<10²个），但在遭受有机污染的蓄水层中可能会增加几个数量级。小鞭毛虫（原位大小通常为2 - 3(5)微米）是蓄水层中迄今为止占主导地位的原生生物，尽管变形虫和偶尔的纤毛虫数量也可能少得多。尽管有大量新的分类学信息有待揭示，但对蓄水层原生生物身份的关注并非仅仅出于学术目的。如果得到证实，以下假设可能对我们理解蓄水层中微生物群落的功能很重要：(1) 鞭毛虫物种之间游泳行为的差异导致摄食异质性和生态位分化，这意味着噬菌鞭毛虫以细菌群落的不同亚群为食，因此在控制细菌密度方面发挥不同作用。(2) 以能够降解有机化合物的细菌为食的噬菌鞭毛虫对生物降解的总体速率有间接影响。
