title: Anthropogenic disturbances influencing ciliate functional feeding groups in impacted tropical streams.
abstract: Anthropogenic disturbances change the trophic structure of streams, ultimately affecting ecosystem functioning. We investigated the effects of human disturbances, mainly organic pollution, on ciliate functional feeding groups (FFG) in 10 tropical streams near agricultural and urban habitats, in the dry and rainy seasons. We hypothesised that the organic pollution would affect the ciliate composition and that the richness and abundance of ciliate FFG would be associated with different disturbances, such that an increase in the load of organic matter would result in an increase in the percentage of bacterivores ciliates, while streams with low organic matter concentration and wide canopy openness will determine a higher contribution of algivorous ciliates. Our results corroborate our hypothesis of an increased development of bacterivorous ciliates with increasing organic pollution, but only in the abundance of this FFG. Also, algivorous ciliates were found to be related to riparian vegetation clearing. Thus, ciliate FFG accurately reflected different anthropogenic disturbances, revealing a change in the trophic structure of the streams. In addition, we found that organic pollution can lead to both taxonomic and functional homogenization of the ciliate community, which implies serious consequences for ecosystem functioning.
authors.affiliation: Núcleo de Pesquisas em Limnologia, Ictiologia e Aquicultura (NUPELIA), Universidade Estadual de Maringá, Maringá, Paraná, Brazil. biatsegovia@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Bianca Trevizan
authors.initials: BT
authors.lastname: Segovia
authors.affiliation: Núcleo de Pesquisas em Limnologia, Ictiologia e Aquicultura (NUPELIA), Universidade Estadual de Maringá, Maringá, Paraná, Brazil.
authors.forename: Fernando Miranda
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Lansac-Toha
authors.affiliation: Núcleo de Pesquisas em Limnologia, Ictiologia e Aquicultura (NUPELIA), Universidade Estadual de Maringá, Maringá, Paraná, Brazil.
authors.forename: Bianca Ramos
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: de Meira
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Ecologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil.
authors.forename: Adalgisa Fernanda
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Cabral
authors.affiliation: Núcleo de Pesquisas em Limnologia, Ictiologia e Aquicultura (NUPELIA), Universidade Estadual de Maringá, Maringá, Paraná, Brazil.
authors.forename: Fabio Amodêo
authors.initials: FA
authors.lastname: Lansac-Tôha
authors.affiliation: Núcleo de Pesquisas em Limnologia, Ictiologia e Aquicultura (NUPELIA), Universidade Estadual de Maringá, Maringá, Paraná, Brazil.
authors.forename: Luiz Felipe Machado
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Velho
mesh_terms: D016798:Ciliophora / Q000502:physiology*; D017753:Ecosystem; D006801:Humans; D011891:Rain; D045483:Rivers; D014876:Water Pollution
keywords: Bioindicator; Guilds; Impacted streams; Protist; Saprobity