异养鞭毛虫原位生长研究进展

近年来,异养鞭毛虫随水体生态内浮游动物小型化进程的加剧,所占比重越来越,已成为当前生态学研究的重要对象,其研究方法也伴随着发生了革命性变化,通过简单介绍异养鞭毛虫的原位研究方法,并就近来研究成果进行了系统综述。     

淡水鱼类功能生态学研究进展

在全球变化和人类活动的影响下,生物多样性正以前所未有的速度丧失,全球生物正经受第六次生物多样性危机。淡水生态系统是最脆弱的生态系统之一。淡水鱼类作为淡水生态系统的重要组成部分,承受着日趋严重的气候变化、栖息地退化、生物入侵和过度捕捞等压力,面临巨大的威胁。在此背景下,如何准确评估鱼类种群和群落对环境变化的响应,以及鱼类群落结构和功能的变化对生态系统功能的影响是淡水鱼类多样性和淡水生态系统保护的关键问题。近年来,淡水鱼类功能生态学的快速发展为解答这一问题提供了一个框架。系统地介绍了淡水鱼类功能生态学主要研究内容、方法、进展及其应用,并着重介绍了淡水鱼类功能特征及其与环境的关系、环境变化下的功能生态学响应研究。据此提出了淡水鱼类功能生态学未来的重点研究方向,指出了其在鱼类多样性保护和资源利用等领域的应用前景。     

Responses of freshwater ecosystems to global change: research progress and outlook

全球变化已经通过提高水温、改变降水格局和水流状况、促进物种入侵、增加极端事件, 对不同的淡水生态系统造成严重的威胁。该文将全球变化背景下淡水生态学的主要研究内容归纳为: (1)全球变化各要素对个体、种群、群落及至生态系统水平的影响; (2)全球变化过程中生态系统生物地球化学循环的改变; (3)淡水生态系统对全球变化的适应对策。最近10-15年淡水生态系统与全球变化研究快速发展, 取得的重要突破有: (1)阐明淡水生态系统结构与功能对全球气候变化尤其是水温升高的响应过程与机制; (2)揭示淡水生态系统(湿地、湖泊、河流等)是全球碳循环的重要组成部分, 在全球变化因素的影响下呈现有机碳埋藏减少和矿化速率提高。今后的研究中, 需要进一步加强对淡水生态系统全要素的系统观测与整合; 开展以“河流”为介质耦合多系统的碳输运和转化过程研究; 强化基础理论研究揭示淡水生态系统对全球变化的适应机制。     

植物化感作用与生物多样性

本文简要地阐释了化感作用的含义、基本特征以及作用机制,并结合生物多样性理论,综述了化感作用研究中化感物种的多样性、化感物质的多样性及其释放途径的多样性,具体讨论了化感作用对物种多样性、遗传多样性及生态系统多样性中的种群生态、协同进化、土壤生境、生态系统功能和生物入侵等方面的可能影响。文中提出了化感作用的利用、管理应与生物多样性保护相统一的看法,并指出对化感作用与生物多样性的关系以及相互影响机制进行本质的探索,特别是对植物化感作用的生态服务功能与价值评估与探讨,可为保护生物学和系统生态学提供理论基础,这也是今后工作开展的一个重要方向。     

白洋淀异养鞭毛虫群落特征及其与环境因子的相关性

于2010年4月至2011年3月调查了白洋淀3个典型湖区表层水体异养鞭毛虫丰度和生物量及环境因子的周年变化,分析了异养鞭毛虫群落与环境因子的相关关系。白洋淀表层水体异养鞭毛虫的丰度和生物量分别介于100-3200 个/mL和35.98-2328.85 μg/L之间,周年平均值分别为1054 个/mL和532.93 μg/L。白洋淀小型异养鞭毛虫(＜7 μm)的丰度占总丰度的47.11%,而生物量只占总生物量的6.82%;中型异养鞭毛虫(约7-14 μm)的丰度占总丰度的37.42%,生物量占总生物量的39.21%;大型异养鞭毛虫(＞14 μm)的丰度虽只占总丰度的15.47%,却贡献了53.97%的生物量。相关性分析表明,异养鞭毛虫丰度与总氮和氨氮呈显著性负相关,与pH值、细菌丰度、纤毛虫丰度及叶绿素a含量呈显著性正相关;异养鞭毛虫生物量与pH值、溶解氧、纤毛虫丰度及叶绿素a含量显著正相关,与总氮、氨氮呈显著负相关。结果表明异养鞭毛虫群落在微食物环中起着枢纽作用。     

淡水生态系统对全球变化的响应:研究进展与展望

全球变化已经通过提高水温、改变降水格局和水流状况、促进物种入侵、增加极端事件,对不同的淡水生态系统造成严重的威胁。该文将全球变化背景下淡水生态学的主要研究内容归纳为:(1)全球变化各要素对个体、种群、群落及至生态系统水平的影响;(2)全球变化过程中生态系统生物地球化学循环的改变;(3)淡水生态系统对全球变化的适应对策。最近10–15年淡水生态系统与全球变化研究快速发展,取得的重要突破有:(1)阐明淡水生态系统结构与功能对全球气候变化尤其是水温升高的响应过程与机制;(2)揭示淡水生态系统(湿地、湖泊、河流等)是全球碳循环的重要组成部分,在全球变化因素的影响下呈现有机碳埋藏减少和矿化速率提高。今后的研究中,需要进一步加强对淡水生态系统全要素的系统观测与整合;开展以"河流"为介质耦合多系统的碳输运和转化过程研究;强化基础理论研究揭示淡水生态系统对全球变化的适应机制。     

物种/功能群去除实验及其在生态学中的应用

随着物种多样性与生态系统功能的关系成为生态学领域研究的焦点之一,物种/功能群去除实验也逐渐得到了广泛的应用。物种/功能群去除实验在生态学中的应用主要包括以下研究内容:种间关系、多样性与生态系统功能关系、关键种的作用和功能、入侵种给生态系统带来的后果评价。针对去除实验的特点,提出去除实验应用中需要注意的若干问题,包括:"去除"行为本身对生态系统的影响、时间尺度在去除实验中对于研究结果的影响以及入侵种去除的特殊性。     

浮游动物摄食在赤潮生消过程中的作用

浮游动物摄食在赤潮生消过程中起相当重要的作用。由于摄食过程的复杂性和生物物种与个体行为存在的多样性 ,使得赤潮过程中浮游动物的摄食研究具有相当难度。从浮游动物的摄食类型和习性、浮游动物摄食率测定、浮游动物选择性摄食对赤潮群落演替发展方向、浮游动物摄食在有毒微藻赤潮中的作用、浮游动物摄食在中国赤潮研究中的关键科学问题等几个方面探讨了浮游动物摄食对赤潮生物种群动力学的影响 ,为理解和治理赤潮提供科学依据     

生态学的多样性指数:功能与系统发育

生物多样性是生态学的核心问题。传统的多样性指数仅包含物种数和相对多度的信息,这类基于分类学的多样性指数并不能很好地帮助理解群落构建和生态系统功能。不同物种对群落构建和生态系统功能所起到的作用类型和贡献也不完全相同,且物种在生态过程中的作用和贡献往往与性状密切相关,因此功能多样性已经成为反映物种群落构建、干扰以及环境因素对群落影响的重要指标。同时,由于亲缘关系相近的物种往往具有相似的性状,系统发育多样性也可以作为功能多样性的一个替代。功能多样性和系统发育多样性各自具有优缺点,但二者均比分类多样性更能揭示群落和生态系统的构建、维持与功能。     

稳定同位素技术在头足类摄食生态学研究中的应用

头足类在海洋食物网营养关系中占有重要地位,然而对其复杂的生活史过程,尤其是摄食生态学信息仍知之甚少.稳定同位素技术作为传统食物网科学研究方法的有力补充,可更深层次地分析头足类的摄食习性和栖息地等方面的重要信息.本文在比较分析国内外头足类摄食生态学研究方法的基础上,系统归纳总结了稳定同位素技术在头足类摄食生态学研究中的发展现状并介绍最新进展情况,着重分析稳定同位素技术在头足类生活史信息,尤其是在摄食生态学研究中的应用现状及发展前景,包括测定样品标准化、头足类生长发育过程中的食性转换和洄游分布等核心问题,以促进其在头足类生物学研究中的应用.     

Viruses and flagellates sustain apparent richness and reduce biomass accumulation of bacterioplankton in coastal marine waters

To gain a better understanding of the interactions among bacteria, viruses and flagellates in coastal marine ecosystems, we investigated the effect of viral lysis and protistan bacterivory on bacterial abundance, production and diversity [determined by 16S rRNA gene polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE)] in three coastal marine sites with different nutrient supplies in Hong Kong. Six experiments were set up using filtration and dilution methods to develop virus, flagellate and virus+flagellate treatments for natural bacterial populations. All three predation treatments had significant repressing effects on bacterial abundance. Bacterial production was significantly repressed by flagellates and both predators (flagellates and viruses). Bacterial apparent species richness (indicated as the number of DGGE bands) was always significantly higher in the presence of viruses, flagellates and both predators than in the predator-free control. Cluster analysis of the DGGE patterns showed that the effects of viruses and flagellates on bacterial community structure were relatively stochastic while the co-effects of predators caused consistent trends (DGGE always showed the most similar patterns when compared with those of in situ environments) and substantially increased the apparent richness. Overall, we found strong evidence that viral lysis and protist bacterivory act additively to reduce bacterial production and to sustain diversity. This first systematic attempt to study the interactive effects of viruses and flagellates on the diversity and production of bacterial communities in coastal waters suggests that a tight control of bacterioplankton dominants results in relatively stable bacterioplankton communities.     

Degradation succession of heterotrophic flagellate communities in microcosms

Degradation succession of heterotrophic flagellate communities was studied in samples of detritus and water from a small swamped lake in the environs of the settlement Borok, Yaroslavl province. Three stages of succession with different species composition of the heterotrophic flagellate community were clearly recognized. Cumulative properties of the community change with time. Maximum species richness, diversity, and abundance were observed on the fourth day of succession; their values gradually decreased later. The trophic and taxonomic community structure was most diverse at the earlier stages of succession. Primordial food (bacteria) concentration affects only the size of peak community properties, but has no influence on the pattern of succession changes. The influence of predators considerably reduced heterotrophic flagellate abundance and can shift the time of the stage with maximum species diversity in the course of succession.     

Effects of Eutrophication on Flagellates Associated with Eichhornia crassipes: An Experimental Approach

The effects of nutrient enrichment on density, biomass and on the relative contribution of pigmented and heterotrophic flagellates to the total abundance of all flagellates associated with Eichhornia crassipes were evaluated through mesocosm experiments over 33 days. Two triplicate treatments (nitrogen and phosphorus addition and a control treatment) were colonized, producing six mesocosm systems. The only variable that showed significance was flagellate density. Density increased significantly with increased nutrient concentrations in both flagellate groups, suggesting the importance of bottom‐up control mechanisms. However, the time lag and the low magnitude response to density, as well as the lack of significant variation in biomass with respect to fertilization, suggested that a complex relationship is responsible for influencing the structure of flagellate communities associated with vegetation during nutrient enrichment in these food webs. (© 2010 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Ecology of planktonic heterotrophic flagellates. A review.

In aquatic environments heterotrophic flagellates are an important component within the microbial loop and the food web, owing to their involvement in the energy transfer and flux and as an intermediate link between bacteria and primary producers, and greater organisms, such as other protists and metazoan consumers. In the microbial loop heterotrophic flagellates highly contribute to fast biomass and nutrient recycling and to the production in aquatic environments. In fact, these protists consume efficiently viruses, bacteria, cyanobacteria and picophytoplankton, and are grazed mainly by other protists, rotifers and small crustaceans. In this paper the knowledge about these unicellular organisms is reviewed, taking into particular account their ecological relationships and trophic role within the plankton community of marine and freshwater environments.     

Distribution of heterotrophic flagellates at the littoral of estuary of Chernaya River (Kandalaksha Bay, White Sea)

Species composition, distribution, and the character of structural changes in the heterotrophic flagellate community were studied along environmental gradients in the Chernaya River estuary. There were 99 species and forms of heterotrophic flagellates, subdivided into three groups: prevalently marine species and euryhaline species preferring biotopes either of higher or decreased salinity. The heterotrophic flagellate community of the estuary was continuously divided into two distinct variants: (1) cenosis of halophilic species, prevalently of sea forms and euryhaline species preferring biotopes of increased salinity; (2) cenosis of halophobic species with prevalence of euryhaline forms gravitating to fresh biotopes. The arbitrary and indistinct boundary between the variants of the community ran at a salinity of 9–10‰. The response of estuarine communities of heterotrophic flagellates and infusorians to variation of abiotic factors was similar and differed from response of communities of microphyto-, meiozoo-and macrozoobenthos; this implied similarity of the response mechanism to environmental factors in organisms of one level of organization.     

Environmental control of the microfaunal community structure in tropical bromeliads

Ecological communities hosted within phytotelmata (plant compartments filled with water) provide an excellent opportunity to test ecological theory and to advance our understanding of how local and global environmental changes affect ecosystems. However, insights from bromeliad phytotelmata communities are currently limited by scarce accounts of microfauna assemblages, even though these assemblages are critical in transferring, recycling, and releasing nutrients in these model ecosystems. Here, we analyzed natural microfaunal communities in leaf compartments of 43 bromeliads to identify the key environmental filters underlying their community structures. We found that microfaunal community richness and abundance were negatively related to canopy openness and vertical height above the ground. These associations were primarily driven by the composition of amoebae and flagellate assemblages and indicate the importance of bottom‐up control of microfauna in bromeliads. Taxonomic richness of all functional groups followed a unimodal relationship with water temperature, peaking at 23–25°C and declining below and above this relatively narrow thermal range. This suggests that relatively small changes in water temperature under expected future climate warming may alter taxonomic richness and ecological structure of these communities. Our findings improve the understanding of this unstudied but crucial component of bromeliad ecosystems and reveal important environmental filters that likely contribute to overall bromeliad community structure and function.     

Species diversity of heterotrophic flagellates in White Sea littoral sites

The species diversity and distribution of benthic heterotrophic flagellates in sediment samples from along the salinity gradient in the Chernaya River Estuary and from Velikaya Salma Strait (Kandalaksha Bay, the White Sea) were investigated during August 2004. One hundred and six taxa have been identified by means of phase and interference contrast light microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The majority of observed flagellates were bacterivores. The species diversity of the following groups: choanoflagellates, euglenids, kinetoplastids, bicosoecids, chrysomonads, thaumatomonads and flagellates Incertae sedis was the highest. Ancyromonas sigmoides and Petalomonas pusilla were the most common species. The species richness was lowest in the brackish water estuarine part with salinity levels between 5 per thousand and 8 per thousand. The distribution of heterotrophic flagellates conforms to the so-called "rule of critical salinity", possessing, apparently, the same universal character for organisms of different size levels. Heterotrophic flagellate communities in these littoral sites were highly heterogeneous. The curve of "cumulative species number vs. sampling effort" is well fitted by equation S=21.17N(0.50) and unsaturated, which indicates that more intensive investigations of the heterotrophic flagellates in the White Sea should be expected to reveal more species.     

Ontogenetic allometry of the bluemouth, <Emphasis Type="Italic">Helicolenus dactylopterus dactylopterus</Emphasis> (Teleostei: Scorpaenidae), in the Northeast Atlantic and Mediterranean based on geometric morphometrics

Since the emergence of the ‘microbial loop’ concept, heterotrophic flagellates have received particular attention as grazers in aquatic ecosystems. These microbes have historically been regarded incorrectly as a homogeneous group of bacterivorous protists in aquatic systems. More recently, environmental rDNA surveys of small heterotrophic flagellates in the pelagic zone of freshwater ecosystems have provided new insights. (i) The dominant phyla found by molecular studies differed significantly from those known from morphological studies with the light microscope, (ii) the retrieved phylotypes generally belong to well-established eukaryotic clades, but there is a very large diversity within these clades and (iii) a substantial part of the retrieved sequences cannot be assigned to bacterivorous but can be assigned instead to parasitic and saprophytic organisms, such as zoosporic true fungi (chytrids), fungus-like organisms (stramenopiles), or virulent alveolate parasites (Perkinsozoa and Amoebophrya sp.). All these microorganisms are able to produce small zoospores to assure dispersal in water during their life-cycles. Based on the existing literature on true fungi and fungus-like organisms, and on the more recently published eukaryotic rDNA environmental studies and morphological observations, we conclude that previously overlooked microbial diversity and related ecological potentials require intensive investigation (i) for an improved understanding of the roles of heterotrophic flagellates in pelagic ecosystems and (ii) to properly integrate the concept of ‘the microbial loop’ into modern pelagic microbial ecology.     

The Current Status of the Free-Living Heterotrophic Flagellates

ABSTRACT. The "flagellates" as a taxon has become obsolete and should be dispensed with. It is obsolete because it is not phylo-genetically coherent. Adopting an ultrastructural perspective, it is argued that the flagellates exemplify an extreme case of paraphyly. Meaningful discussion of the evolution or ecology of flagellates can only emerge after we identify the monophyletic constituents of the flagellates. There are over 40 known types of heterotrophic flagellates and these should form the basis of a new understanding of flagellate diversity.