Ecologie des infusoires dans les salissures de substrats immergés dans un port de mer. I. Le film primaire et le recouvrement primaire
Persoone, G. (1968). Ecologie des infusoires dans les salissures de substrats immergés dans un port de mer. I. Le film primaire et le recouvrement primaire. Protistologica (Paris, 1965) IV(2): 187-194
In: Protistologica (Paris. 1965). CNRS: Paris. ISSN 0033-1821, more
From 1963 to 1965, the fouling on submerged substrates has been studied in the harbour of Ostend (Belgium). After the bacterial film, diatoms and protozoa, mostly ciliates, colonise the surfaces (primary film). The first protist present is always the peritrichous ciliate Zoothamnium commune Kahl. The list of the infusorians found in the "primary growth" (i.e. the fouling which develops during half a month of submersion) has been established; they have been classified following their feeding behaviour after Faure-Fremiet (1961) and Dragesco (1962) , and a tentative scheme of "relative quantities" has been drawn. Half of the 30 species recorded were "microphages" which can be explained by the muddy nature of the fouling. The carnivorous and histophagous "macrophages" are absent during the cold period of the year. As a matter of fact the total number of species then decreases by 50 %. This seems to be more due to scarcity of food rather than to changed temperature or salinity. The peritrichous ciliate Zootthamnium commune Kahl is the dominant species all over the year, except in winter when Cyrthophores (Dysteria sp.) are the most abundant. The latter seem to feed specifically on Leucothiobacteriaceae (Leucothrix mucor Oersted) which are always present in great numbers on the substrates. The protozoans in fouling play an important role in the reconversion into new animal biomass, of a great quantity of organic matter which daily flows as sewage in this highly polluted estuary.
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