AME 14:49-58 (1998)  -  doi:10.3354/ame014049

The vertical distribution of planktonic ciliates and nanoplankton was investigated in 3 types of oceanic waters in the western Pacific. Ranges of their standing crops, in abundance and biomass, were 50 to 2540 cells l^-1 and 4.89 × 10⁴ to 6.32 × 10⁶ pg C l^-1 for ciliates and 7.2 × 10⁴ to 1.97 × 10⁶ cells l^-1 and 2.45 × 10⁵ to 4.92 × 10⁷ pg C l^-1 for nanoplankton in the spring subarctic water, <1080 cells l^-1 and <1.27 × 10⁶ pg C l^-1 for ciliates and 7.5 × 10⁴ to 2.76 × 10⁶ cells l^-1 and 1.01 × 10⁵ to 1.03 × 10⁷ pg C l^-1 for nanoplankton in the fall subarctic water, and <570 cells l^-1 and <1.59 × 10⁶ pg C l^-1 for ciliates and 1.45 × 10⁵ to 3.18 × 10⁶ cells l^-1 and 3.05 × 10⁵ to 2.62 × 10⁷ pg C l^-1 for nanoplankton in the subtropical water. The standing crop of ciliates, as a whole, was positively correlated to that of nanoplankton especially in biomass: B_c = 0.211 × B_n^0.994, r = 0.81, p < 0.001, where B_c and B_n are biomass of ciliates and nanoplankton, respectively. This suggests that nanoplankton and ciliate stocks are tightly linked in oceanic waters.

Planktonic ciliates · Nanoplankton · Quantitative relationship · Oceanic waters