School of Engineering and Science - Jacobs University

CHAPTER I
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
2.5 year microzooplankton monitoring
During the 2.5 year monitoring program 125 different taxa of dinoflagellates and
ciliates were recorded. Each group contributed roughly 50 percent to the total number of
taxa.
62 dinoflagellate taxa were recorded and 39 of them could be regarded as truly
heterotrophic because they lacked chloroplasts. As most chloroplast-bearing
dinoflagellates are capable of mixotrophic nutrition via phagotrophy (Du Yoo et al.,
2009), the remainder were also considered to be potential grazers with more or less
marked phagotrophic capabilities. Heterotrophic dinoflagellates were always present in
carbon concentrations between 0.5 and 620 µgC L -1 . The most important group of
dinoflagellates in terms of biomass were the Noctilucales, followed by mixotrophic and
heterotrophic Gymnodiniales and Peridiniales (Figure 1, left panel). Prorocentrales and
Dinophysiales played only a minor role from a biomass perspective.
Figure 1: Shares of different dinoflagellate (left panel) and ciliate groups (right panel) during the 2.5 year
monitoring based on their biomass contribution. MT = mixotrophic, HT = heterotrophic.
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