JPR Advance Access originally published online on October 5, 2005
Journal of Plankton Research 2005 27(11):1103-1111; doi:10.1093/plankt/fbi077
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Temporal variability of diversity and biomass of tintinnids (Ciliophora) in a southwestern Atlantic temperate estuary
1 Instituto Argentino de Oceanografía, Camino la Carrindanga Km 7, B8000FWB Bahía Blanca Argentina, 2 Departamento de Biología, Bioquímica y Farmacia, Universidad Nacional del sur, Bahía Blanca, Argentina and 3 Departamento de Geografia, Universidad Nacional del sur, Bahía Blanca, Argentina
* Corresponding Author: sbarria{at}criba.edu.ar
Received June 6, 2005; accepted in principle August 19, 2005; accepted for publication September 28, 2005; published online October 5, 2005
Communicating editor: K.J. Flynn
Seasonal variations in diversity and biomass of tintinnids (Ciliophora: Tintinnida) were investigated at two fixed stations in the inner part of the Bahía Blanca Estuary (38°42' S, 61°50' W) during an annual cycle. The variations were analysed in relation to surface temperature, salinity, transparency, solar radiation and chlorophyll a (Chl a)concentration. Biomass was calculated in terms of biovolume and carbon units. Diversity was estimated as the number of species and the Shannon Index (H', ln based). Density of tintinnids ranged from 100 to 7800 individuals L1 H' ranged from 0 to 1.81. The biomass varied from 0.3 to 127.78 x 106 µm3 L1 (0.0239.4 µg C L1). Density was significantly related to temperature, solar radiation and Secchi distance (P < 0.01); diversity was significantly related to temperature (P < 0.01) and solar radiation (P < 0.05). Biomass was significantly related only to temperature (P < 0.01) in one of the stations. According to principal components analysis (PCA) tintinnids exhibited a segregation of three groups: winter, springsummer and autumn for the most internal station and winter, spring and summerautumn for the most external station. H' values were lower than those observed in other coastal systems found at about the same latitude in the northern hemisphere.