Morphology and ecology of some planktonic ciliates (Ciliophora: Oligotrichia) in the southern coastal waters, Korea

Abstract

The planktonic ciliates, the majority of which are in subclass Oligotrichia Bütschli, 1889, have long been recognized as major components of microzooplankton in marine ecosystem. They are known to control the nutrient cycle, primary and secondary production in the microbial food web and have also been recognized as indicator of water pollution condition. However, despite the growing concerns about the planktonic ciliates, a few studies were conducted due to some difficulties of species identification in Korea. In this study, to supply the morphological and ecological information of planktonic ciliates in the southern coastal waters of Korea, water samples were collected seasonally in Gwangyang (19 sites) Bay and Jinhae Bay (23 sites) from August 2010 to May 2011. The quantitative and qualitative analyses were carried out using the impregnated specimen by quantitative protargol staining. Water temperature and salinity were measured by a portables T-S meter in the filed. As a result, nine species belonging to 4 genera were identified and redescribed. These nine species were firstly reported from Korean coastal waters. Their seasonal abundances and spatial distributions were also measured. Total these species abundances ranged from 0-10,600 cells∙L-1. Strombidinopsis chilorhax showed high abundance from both bays in summer. Strombidium dalum is observed all seasons except for