Ref ID : 4702
Peter G. Verity and Tracy A. Villareal; The Relative Food Value of Diatoms, Dinoflagellates, Flagellates, and Cyanobacteria for Tintinnid Ciliates. Arch.Protistenk 131:71-84, 1986
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Growth rates of two coastal tintinnid ciliates, Tintinnopsis acuminata Daday and Tintinnopsis vasculum Meunier, were measured in batch cultures of 10 diatom clones, 10 clones of dinoflagellates and flagellates, and 2 clones of chroococcoid cyanobacteria. Diatom clones represented species lacking significant external processes (Minutocellus), species possessing siliceous setae (Chaetoceros), and species possessing beta-chitin threads (Thalassiosira, Cyclotella). Both tintinnids grew rapidly when fed diatoms lacking treads or setae; neither species grew when fed setae-bearing diatoms. The smaller tintinnid, Tintinnopsis acuminata, exhibited extensive mortality when fed thread-bearing diatoms; the larger tintinnid, Tintinnopsis vasculum, grew only when fed the two smallest thread-bearing diatoms. Both tintinnids grew rapidly on diatoms with threads reduced by culture on a shaker table: growth rates were inversely related to diatom cross-sectional diameter (= cell + threads). Tintinnids feeding on the prymnesiophytes, Dicrateria, Isochrysis, and Pavlova, grew at rates similar to those feeding on diatoms lacking significant external processes. T. vasculum showed moderate growth when fed dinoflagellates, while T. acuminata grew well when fed chlorophytes and prasinophytes. Both tintinnids exhibited extensive mortality when fed the chroococcoid cyanobacteria, Synechococcus.