title: Insights into assessing water quality using taxonomic distinctness based on a small species pool of biofilm-dwelling ciliate fauna in coastal waters of the Yellow Sea, northern China.
abstract: The aim of this study is to determine the feasibility of using a small species pool from a raw dataset of biofilm-dwelling ciliates for bioassessment based on taxonomic diversity. Samples were collected monthly at four stations within a gradient of environmental stress in coastal waters of the Yellow Sea, northern China from August 2011 to July 2012. A 33-species subset was identified from the raw 137-species dataset using a multivariate method. The spatial patterns of this subset were significantly correlated with the changes in the nutrients and chemical oxygen demand. The taxonomic diversity indices were significantly correlated with nutrients. The pair-wise indices of average taxonomic distinctness (Δ(+)) and the taxonomic distinctness (Λ(+)) showed a clear departure from the expected taxonomic pattern. These findings suggest that this small ciliate assemblage might be used as an adequate species pool for discriminating water quality status based on taxonomic distinctness in marine ecosystems.
authors.affiliation: College of Marine Life Science, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266003, China; Institute of Evolution and Marine Biodiversity, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266003, China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: College of Marine Life Science, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266003, China; Institute of Evolution and Marine Biodiversity, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266003, China.
authors.forename: Yuanyuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Sciences, Natural History Museum, London SW7 5BD, UK.
authors.forename: Alan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Warren
authors.affiliation: College of Marine Life Science, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266003, China; Institute of Evolution and Marine Biodiversity, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266003, China. Electronic address: henglongxu@126.com.
authors.forename: Henglong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Xu
mesh_terms: D044822:Biodiversity; D018441:Biofilms; D057919:Biological Oxygen Demand Analysis; D002681:China; D016798:Ciliophora / Q000145:classification / Q000502:physiology*; D017753:Ecosystem; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D012623:Seawater / Q000737:chemistry*; D060753:Water Quality
keywords: Biofilm-dwelling ciliate; Environmental stress; Maine bioassessment; Microbial ecology; Taxonomic diversity; Taxonomic sufficiency