Feeding by heterotrophic dinoflagellates on the common marine heterotrophic nanoflagellate Cafeteria sp.

Abstract

MEPS Marine Ecology Progress Series Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsTheme Sections MEPS 333:151-160 (2007) - doi:10.3354/meps333151 Feeding by heterotrophic dinoflagellates on the common marine heterotrophic nanoflagellate Cafeteria sp. Hae Jin Jeong1,*, Jeong Eun Song1, Nam Seon Kang1, Shin Kim2, Yeong Du Yoo1, Jae Yeon Park3 1School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, College of Natural Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-747, ROK 2Department of Oceanography, Kunsan National University, Kunsan 573-701, ROK 3Research Institute of Oceanography, College of Natural Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-747, ROK *Email: hjjeong@snu.ac.kr ABSTRACT: To investigate interactions between heterotrophic dinoflagellates (HTDs) and heterotrophic nanoflagellates (HNFs), we tested whether or not 5 HTDs (Oxyrrhis marina, Gyrodinium cf. guttula, Pfiesteria piscicida, Luciella masanensis, and Stoeckeria algicida) feed on the common HNF Cafeteria sp. and measured the growth and ingestion rates of O. marina, G. cf. guttula, and P. piscicida when feeding on Cafeteria sp. (equivalent spherical diameter = ca. 3.5 µm). We calculated grazing coefficients by combining field data on abundances of O. marina and G. cf. guttula and co-occurring HNFs with laboratory data on ingestion rates obtained in the present study. O. marina, G. cf. guttula, P. piscicida, and L. masanensis were able to ingest Cafeteria sp., while S. algicida did not feed on it. Cafeteria sp. supported positive growth in O. marina and G. cf. guttula, but not in P. piscicida. Specific growth rates of O. marina and G. cf. guttula on Cafeteria sp. increased with increasing mean prey concentration before becoming saturated at the mean prey concentration of ca. 100 ng C ml–1 (20 000 cells ml–1). The maximum growth rates of O. marina and G. cf. guttula on Cafeteria sp. were 0.19 and 0.05 d–1, respectively. With increasing mean prey concentration, the ingestion rates of O. marina, G. cf. guttula, and P. piscicida on Cafeteria sp. rapidly increased at mean prey concentrations <100 ng ml–1 (ca. 20 000 cells ml–1), but slowly increased at higher mean prey concentrations. The maximum ingestion rate of O. marina on Cafeteria sp. (0.294 ng C predator–1 d–1) was much higher than that of G. cf. guttula (0.034 ng C predator–1 d–1) or P. piscicida (0.028 ng C predator–1 d–1). The maximum clearance rates were 0.18 to 0.54 µl predator–1 h–1. Mean grazing coefficients for O. marina and G. cf. guttula on co-occurring HNFs calculated in the present study were 2.88 and 0.42 d–1, respectively. The results of the present study suggest that O. marina and G. cf. guttula sometimes have considerable grazing impacts on populations of HNFs. KEY WORDS: Feeding · Food web · Growth · Ingestion · Protist · Protozoa Full text in pdf format PreviousNextExport citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in MEPS Vol. 333. Online publication date: March 12, 2007 Print ISSN: 0171-8630; Online ISSN: 1616-1599 Copyright © 2007 Inter-Research.