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Network of Interactions Between Ciliates and Phytoplankton During Spring
Thomas Posch1, Bettina Eugster1, Francesco Pomati2
1Limnological Station, Institute of Plant Biology and Microbiology, University of Zurich Kilchberg, Switzerland.
Frontiers in Microbiology
|December 5, 2015
Summary
Planktonic ciliates play key roles in freshwater ecosystems, acting as primary consumers and bacterivores. Understanding their species-specific interactions with other microbes is crucial for aquatic ecology and food web dynamics.
Area of Science:
- Freshwater microbial ecology
- Aquatic food web dynamics
- Protistology
Background:
- Spring phytoplankton blooms drive successions in planktonic ciliate communities.
- Species-specific interactions among ciliates and other microorganisms remain poorly understood.
- Taxonomic diversity of ciliates is known, but ecological roles require further elucidation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate ciliate succession patterns in Lake Zurich during spring.
- To analyze species-specific interactions between ciliates, phytoplankton, bacteria, and abiotic factors.
- To evaluate the utility of association networks and time-lagged analyses for studying microbial interactions.
Main Methods:
- Monitoring of 20 ciliate morphotypes and associated microbial groups during spring.
- Analysis of contemporaneous correlations and time-lagged co-occurrence.
- Construction and visualization of association networks to infer interspecific relationships.
Main Results:
- Association networks identified key ciliate species as primary consumers of cryptomonads (e.g., B. planctonicum, R. humile).
- Mixotrophic/omnivorous ciliate species showed distinct clustering, indicating specialized feeding strategies.
- Halteria/Pelagohalteria species were confirmed as significant bacterivores.
- Time-lagged analyses (LSA) were found to be inadequate for high-frequency data, inflating spurious associations.
Conclusions:
- Association networks are valuable for generating hypotheses on ciliate autecology, especially for newly described species.
- Contemporaneous correlation analysis effectively reveals direct feeding relationships within planktonic communities.
- Careful selection of statistical methods is essential for accurate interpretation of microbial interaction data.
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