• ALGAE
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.281-290
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• 2015

We explored phagotrophy of the phototrophic ciliate Mesodinium rubrum on the cyanobacterium Synechococcus. The ingestion and clearance rates of M. rubrum on Synechococcus as a function of prey concentration were measured. In addition, we calculated grazing coefficients by combining the field data on abundance of M. rubrum and co-occurring Synechococcus spp. with laboratory data on ingestion rates. The ingestion rate of M. rubrum on Synechococcus sp. linearly increased with increasing prey concentrations up to approximately 1.9 × 10⁶ cells mL^-1, to exhibit sigmoidal saturation at higher concentrations. The maximum ingestion and clearance rates of M. rubrum on Synechococcus were 2.1 cells predator^-1 h^-1 and 4.2 nL predator^-1 h^-1, respectively. The calculated grazing coefficients attributable to M. rubrum on cooccurring Synechococcus spp. reached 0.04 day^-1. M. rubrum could thus sometimes be an effective protistan grazer of Synechococcus in marine planktonic food webs. M. rubrum might also be able to form recurrent and massive blooms in diverse marine environments supported by the unique and complex mixotrophic arrays including phagotrphy on hetrotrophic bacteria and Synechococcus as well as digestion, kleptoplastidy and karyoklepty after the ingestion of cryptophyte prey.

• ALGAE
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.45-59
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• 2020

To investigate the spatio-temporal distributions of the mixotrophic dinoflagellate Yihiella yeosuensis in Korean coastal waters and its grazing impact on prey populations, water samples were seasonally collected from 28 stations in the East, West, and South Seas of Korea and Jeju Island from April 2015 to October 2018. The abundances of Y. yeosuensis in the water samples were quantified using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Simultaneously, the physical and chemical properties of water from all sampled stations were determined, and the abundances of the optimal prey species of Y. yeosuensis, the prasinophyte Pyramimonas sp. and the cryptophyte Teleaulax amphioxeia, were quantified using qPCR. Y. yeosuensis has a wide distribution, as is reflected by the detection of Y. yeosuensis cells at 23 sampling stations; however, this distribution has a strong seasonality, which is indicated by its detection at 22 stations in summer but only one station in winter. The abundance of Y. yeosuensis was significantly and positively correlated with those of Pyramimonas sp. and T. amphioxeia, as well as with water temperature. The highest abundance of Y. yeosuensis was 48.5 cells mL^-1 in Buan in July 2017, when the abundances of Pyramimonas sp. and T. amphioxeia were 917.6 and 210.4 cells mL^-1, respectively. The growth rate of Y. yeosuensis on Pyramimonas sp., calculated by interpolating the growth rates at the same abundance, was 0.49 d^-1, which is 37% of the maximum growth rate of Y. yeosuensis on Pyramimonas sp. obtained in the laboratory. Therefore, the field abundance of Pyramimonas sp. obtained in the present study can support a moderate positive growth of Y. yeosuensis. The maximum grazing coefficient for Y. yeosuensis on the co-occurring Pyramimonas sp. was 0.42 d^-1, indicating that 35% of the Pyramimonas sp. population were consumed in 1 d. Therefore, the spatio-temporal distribution of Y. yeosuensis in Korean coastal waters may be affected by those of the optimal prey species and water temperature. Moreover, Y. yeosuensis may potentially have considerable grazing impacts on populations of Pyramimonas sp.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.151-157
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• 2015

Recent laboratory studies have documented that mixotrophic dinoflagellates Dinophysis spp. and heterotrophic dinoflagellate Oxyphysis oxytoxoides share a common prey, i.e. the mixotrophic ciliate Mesodinium rubrum. Nonetheless, very little is known about the population dynamics and species interactions among these protists in natural environments. To investigate the interactions between the dinoflagellate predators and their ciliate prey in the field, we took the samples twice a day from 26 July to 28 August, 2011 at a fixed station in Masan Bay and analyzed their abundances. During this study, salinity was highly variable, ranging from 5 to 28, due to the periodic input of rainfalls to the sampling station. Water temperature was on average $26.5^{\circ}C$ until 20 August and thereafter was about $21^{\circ}C$ by the end of the sampling period. The ciliate M. rubrum occurred persistently throughout the sampling period, ranging from 13 to $492\;cells\;mL^{-1}$. Cell densities of D. acuminata and O. oxytoxoides ranged from undetectable level to $19,833\;cells\;L^{-1}$ and from undetectable level to $100,333\;cells\;L^{-1}$, respectively. The high abundance of D. acuminata mostly followed the blooming of the ciliate M. rubrum, but it often did not peak even during heavy blooms of the prey, probably due to sensitivity to large salinity fluctuation and also presumably overlapped grazing by other mixotrophic dinoflagellates. The abundance of O. oxytoxoides was detected only when water temperature was lower than $24^{\circ}C$, indicating that water temperature is an important environmental factor to control the population dynamics of the dinoflagellate species.