An approach to determining potential surrogates for analyzing ecological patterns of planktonic ciliate communities in marine ecosystems

摘要

Introduction In order to identify a potential surrogate of planktonic ciliate communities for marine bioassessments and evaluating biological conservations, the different taxonomic/ numerical resolutions and taxa as surrogates were studied in Jiaozhou Bay, northern China during a 1-year cycle (June 2007-May 2008). Materials and methods Samples were collected biweekly from a depth of 1 m at each of five sites. A range of physicochemical parameters were also measured in order to determine water quality.