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The distribution of ciliates on Ecology Glacier (King George Island, Antarctica): relationships between species assemblages and environmental parameters

Mieczan, Tomasz and Górniak, Dorota and Świątecki, Aleksander and Zdanowski, Marek K and Tarkowska-Kukuryk, Monika (2013) The distribution of ciliates on Ecology Glacier (King George Island, Antarctica): relationships between species assemblages and environmental parameters. Polar Biology (36). pp. 249-258. ISSN 0722-4060

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Official URL: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00300-...

Abstract

Ciliates are important consumers of pico- and nano-sized producers, are nutrient regenerators, and are an important food source for metazoans. To date, ecological research on ciliates has focused on marine ecosystems rather than on glacier habitats. This paper presents the first major study on ciliates from the Ecology Glacier (South Shetland Islands, Antarctica). The objective of the study was to investigate the structure and spatial distribution of ciliate communities and to identify the environmental factors determining the structure of the assemblages. Microbial communities were collected from three habitats: surface snow, cryoconite holes, and glacier streams. Sampling was carried out every 3–4 days from January 17 to February 24, 2012. A total of 18 ciliate taxa were identified. The species richness, abundance, and biomass of protozoa differed significantly between the stations studied with the lowest numbers in streams on the glacier surface and the highest numbers in cryoconite holes. The RDA performed to specify the direct relationships between the abundance of ciliate taxa and environmental variables showed obvious differences between studied habitats. The analysis showed that all variables together explained 62.4 % of total variance. However, variables thatsignificantly explained the variance in ciliate communities in cryoconite holes, snow, and surface streams were temperature, conductivity, and total nitrogen. Further research is required to explain the impact of biotic factors influencing the presence of ciliates, including the abundance of bacteria, microalgae, and small Metazoa.

Item Type:Article
Additional Information:© The Author(s) 2012. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com
Subjects:Q Science > QR Microbiology
Divisions:Department of Antarctic Biology
ID Code:449
Deposited By: dr K.J. Chwedorzewska
Deposited On:10 Feb 2014 13:45
Last Modified:05 Nov 2014 08:52

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