SCIENTIA MARINA 70 (3) September 2006, 431-442, Barcelona (Spain) ISSN: 0214-8358
The role of ciliates within the microbial food web in the eutrophicated part of Kasˇtela Bay (middle Adriatic Sea) NATALIA BOJANIC´ 1, MLADEN Sˇ OLIC´ 1, NADA KRSTULOVIC´ 1, STEFANIJA Sˇ ESTANOVIC´ 1, Zˇ IVANA NINCˇ EVIC´ GLADAN 1, IVONA MARASOVIC´ 1 and IGOR BRAUTOVIC´ 2 2
1 Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries, Sˇ etalisˇ te I. Mesˇ trovic´ a 63, 21000 Split, Croatia. E-mail:
[email protected] University of Dubrovnik, Institute of Marine and Coastal Research, Kneza Damjana Jude 12, 20001 Dubrovnik, Croatia
SUMMARY: Interactions among phytoplankton, bacterioplankton, heterotrophic nanoflagellates (HNF), ciliated protozoa and copepod nauplii were studied in the eutrophicated part of Kasˇ tela Bay from May 1998 to November 1999. Special emphasis was placed on relationships between size categories of nonloricate ciliates (NLC) and other microbial food web components. Biomasses of phytoplankton and bacteria were primarily influenced by abiotic parameters. Temperature indirectly controlled variation in HNF biomass through the changes in biomass of bacteria and the smaller phytoplankton fraction. Besides HNF, bacterial biomass was affected by the NLC
