Ecological balance between ciliate plankton and its prey candidates,pico- and nanoplankton,in the East China Sea |
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Authors: | Toshikazu Suzuki Chieko Miyabe |
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Institution: | (1) Faculty of Fisheries, Nagasaki University, Nagasaki 852-8521, Japan |
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Abstract: | Standing stocks of ciliate plankton and its prey candidates, both picoplankton and nanoplankton, were investigated in spring
in the East China Sea. The former was 1.36 × 105–1.54 × 108 μm3 l−1 in biovolume, and the latter was 5.33 × 106–1.11 × 108 μm3 l−1. The biovolume ratio of ciliate plankton to prey candidates ranged from 1.31 × 10−2 to 2.00 × 100; it was larger in abundant prey conditions and smaller in sparse preys. Making some plausible assumptions about physiological
activity on both organisms, every ratio meet the quantitative restriction that prey production should be equal to or larger
than ciliate consumption. However, prey candidates would be so sparsely distributed that ciliate plankton could not capture
sufficient prey organisms in its random filter-feeding manner. Even though planktonic ciliates must have some extraordinary
mechanisms to capture preys efficiently, this quantitative imbalance might be one of the reasons for decreasing ciliate/prey
ratio in sparse prey conditions.
Handling editor: K. Martens |
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Keywords: | Planktonic ciliates Nanoplankton Picoplankton East China Sea |
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