We assessed the potential of marine ciliate community as an indicator to coastal water quality using water samples collected from four stations in the Yellow Sea in the summer 2000. The four stations were characterized by different levels of pollution. The ciliate communities consisted primarily of tintinnids and aloricate ciliates that were <30 μm. A total of 78 species were classified: 55 species at Station 2, 51 species each at Stations 1 and 4, and 47 species at Station 3. The mean number of species at each site was 29.2±2.0 (Station 1), 28.5±2.9 (Station 2), 27.8±1.7 (Station 3), and 24.5±2.3 (Station 4). The abundance was highly variable: 19 331±11 187 ind./L at Station 1, 7 960±5 639 ind./L at Station 2, 29 015±12 999 ind./L at Station 3, and 8 190±4 658 ind./L at Station 4. Our results suggest that neither the simple chemical analysis (e.g. chemical oxygen demand, dissolved inorganic nitrogen, and phosphate) nor the eutrophication/pollution index adequately described the water quality at the four stations. The same was true of the number of species and their abundance, both of which had no correlation with the chemical indices. In contrast, Margalef’s diversity index values (3.12 at Station 2, 2.89 at Station 1, and 2.64 at Stations 3 and 4) generally discriminated the water quality status of the four stations. The difference in water quality among the stations was strongly supported by the pattern of species richness (i.e. the total number of species) of ciliates at each station. Our evaluation was consistent with the results of long-term water quality monitoring at the four stations. With increasing eutrophication, we observed also a compositional and functional shift in the ciliate assemblages from algivorous oligotrich/choreotrich to nonselective-omnivorous gymnostomatids to bacterivorous-detrivorous scuticociliatids. Thus, ciliates may be used to indicate the coastal water quality status of a given site.
海洋微型底栖生物(microbenthos)主要包括细菌(bacteria,cyanobacteria)、微藻(microalgae;主要为硅藻)及原生动物(protozoa)(Mare,1942)。底栖原生动物又常称为微型底栖动物(microfauna),主要包括纤毛虫、鞭毛虫和肉足虫等单细胞真核生物。其中,海洋鞭毛虫和纤毛虫常可达极高的丰度,如潮间带沉积物表层的纤毛虫密度可高达2500 ind/mL(Hamels et al.,1998;Dietrich et al.,2000;Wickham et al.,2000),而且原生动物的代谢率可占原生动物和小型动物总代谢率的29%～96%(Hamels et al.,2004)。因此,在底栖生态系统的物质循环和能量流动中起着重要作用。
The present study reports four species of Branchiomma within Sabellidae (Polychaeta, Sabellida) from China Seas. Except for Branchiomma cingulatum (Grube, 1870) and B. serratibranchis (Grube, 1878), B. nigromaculatum (Baird, 1865) and B. pererai(De Silva, 1965)are the first records from China Seas.
The present study reports three species of Megalomma within Sabellidae (Polychaeta, Sabellida) from China Seas. Except for Megalomma vesiculosum (Montagu, 1815), M. heterops Perkins, 1984 and M. bioculatum (Ehlers, 1887) are the first records from China Seas.
