Bioassessment of water quality status using a potential bioindicator based on functional groups of planktonic ciliates in marine ecosystems.
The feasibility of a potential ecological indicator based on functional groups of planktonic ciliates for bioassessment of water quality status were studied in a bay, northern Yellow Sea. Samples were biweekly collected at five stations with different water quality status during a 1-year period. The multivariate approach based on "bootstrap-average" analysis was used to summarize the spatial variation in functional structure of the samples. The functional patterns represented a significant spatial variability, and were significantly correlated with the changes of nutrients (mainly nitrate nitrogen, NO3-N), alone or in combination with dissolve oxygen and salinity among five stations. The functional diversity represented a clear spatial variation among five stations, and was found to be significantly related to the nutrient NO3-N. According to the results, we suggest that the ecological parameter based on functional groups of planktonic ciliates may be used as a potential bioindicator of water quality status in marine ecosystems.
Department of Marine Ecology, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266003, China. Electronic address: henglongxu@126.com.
Henglong
H
Xu
Department of Marine Ecology, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266003, China.
Jiang
J
Yong
Department of Marine Ecology, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266003, China; Department of Marine Biology, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266003, China.
Guangjian
G
Xu
D061006:Bays; D002681:China; D016798:Ciliophora; D017753:Ecosystem; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D008386:Marine Biology / Q000379:methods; D009584:Nitrogen / Q000032:analysis; D010100:Oxygen / Q000032:analysis; D010933:Plankton; D054712:Salinity; D060753:Water Quality
D009584:Nitrogen; D010100:Oxygen
Bioassessment; Functional group; Marine ecosystems; Planktonic ciliate; Water quality