Ref ID : 6869
Helga Muller; The Relative Importance of Different Ciliate Taxa in the Pelagic Food Web in Lake Constance. Microbial Ecology 18:261-273, 1989
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Abundance, biovolume, and species composition of pelagic ciliates in Lake Constance were recorded over two annual cylces (1987/88). Production was estimated from mean annual biovolumes and size-specific growth rates obtained from the literature. Cell concentrations and biovolumes ranged from 0.1 to 120 cell ml-1 and from 3 to 1,200 mm3 m-3, respectively. Mean annual values were, respectively, 6.8 cells ml-1 and 94 mm3 m-3 in 1987, and 12.0 cells ml-1 and 130 mm3 m-3 in 1988. In both years, prostome nanociliates (<20 µm) dominated numerically, while strobiliids in the size range 20-35 µm contributed most significantly to ciliate production. Ciliate community production, according to a crude calculation, yielded approximately 10-15 gC m-2 year-1.