Ingestion of a bacterivorous ciliate by the oyster Crassostrea gigas: Protozoa as a trophic link between picoplankton and benthic suspension-feeders
| Type | Article | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | 1997 | ||||||||
| Language | English | ||||||||
| Author(s) | Le Gall Solange1, 2, Bel Hassen Malika1, Le Gall Pierre3 | ||||||||
| Affiliation(s) | 1 : IFREMER, CNRS, CREMA, BP 5, F-17137 LHOUMEAU, FRANCE. 2 : CNRS, FRANCE 3 : UNIV LA ROCHELLE, LBBM, F-17042 LA ROCHELLE, FRANCE. |
||||||||
| Source | Marine Ecology Progress Series (0171-8630) (Inter-research), 1997 , Vol. 152 , N. 1-3 , P. 301-306 | ||||||||
| DOI | 10.3354/meps152301 | ||||||||
| WOS© Times Cited | 53 | ||||||||
| Keyword(s) | oyster, food sources, picoplankton, protozoa, trophic link | ||||||||
| Abstract | The linked concepts of 'microbial loop' and 'protozoan trophic link' have been very well documented in filter-feeding microzooplankton such as copepods, but have not been applied to energy transfer to benthic suspension-feeding macrofauna, with the exception of the recent demonstration of heterotrophic flagellate assimilation by mussels. The oyster Crassostrea gigas obtains energy resources by filtering microalgae (similar to 5 to 100 mu m). However, in turbid estuaries, light-limited phytoplanktonic production cannot entirely account for oyster energy requirements. Conversely, picoplankters (<2 mu m), which are main effecters of coastal energy flow and matter cycling, are not efficiently retained by oyster filtration. Ciliate protozoal as both micro-sized cells (similar to 5 to 100 run) and bacteria grazers, may represent a major intermediary in trophic transfer between picoplankton and metazoa. The ciliate Uronema was intensely cultured and labelled, using the cyanobacteria Synechococcus as an auto-fluorescent biomarker. The labelled ciliates were offered as potential prey to oysters. We report here the first experimental evidence of a significant retention and ingestion of ciliates by oysters, supporting the role of protozoa as a realistic trophic link between picoplankters and filter-feeding bivalves and thus enhancing their potential importance in estuarine microbial food webs. | ||||||||
| Full Text |
|