Community dynamics and co-occurrence relationships of pelagic ciliates and their potential prey at a coastal and an offshore station in the ultra-oligotrophic Eastern Mediterranean Sea.

ABSTRACT: Ciliates have been recognized as one of the major components of the microbial food web, especially in ultra-oligotrophic waters, such as the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, where nutrients are scarce and the microbial community is dominated by pico- and nano-sized organisms. For this reason, ciliates play an important role in these ecosystems since they are the main planktonic grazers. Regardless the importance of these organisms, little is known about the community structure of heterotrophic and mixotrophic ciliates and how they are associated to their potential prey. In this study, we used 18S V4 rRNA gene metabarcoding to analyze ciliate community dynamics and how the relationship with potential prey changes according to different seasons and depths. Samples were collected seasonally at two

SUBMITTER: Romano F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10400710 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature