title: Use of multiple functional traits of protozoa for bioassessment of marine pollution.
abstract: Ecological parameters based on multiply functional traits have many advantages for monitoring programs by reducing "signal to noise" ratios of observed species data. To identify potential indicators for bioassessment of marine pollution in function space, the functional patterns of protozoan communities and relationships with environmental changes were studied in coastal waters of the Yellow Sea during a 1-year period. The results showed that: (1) the spatial variability in functional trait distributions of the protozoa was significantly associated with changes in environmental variables, especially chemical oxygen demand (COD) and nutrients on spatial scale; (2) the functional traits, especially food resources and feeding type, were significantly correlated with COD and nutrients; and (3) the functional diversity indices were generally related to nutrients or COD. Based on the results, we suggest that the functional traits and diversity indices of protozoan communities may be used as more effective indicators for bioassessment of marine pollution.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Microbial Ecology, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266003, China.
authors.forename: Xiaoxiao
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhong
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Microbial Ecology, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266003, China.
authors.forename: Guangjian
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Microbial Ecology, 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; D057919:Biological Oxygen Demand Analysis; D016798:Ciliophora; D017753:Ecosystem; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D014873:Water Pollutants / Q000633:toxicity*
chemical_list: D014873:Water Pollutants
keywords: Bioassessment; Biological trait; Functional diversity; Marine pollution; Protozoa