Protistology

The current knowledge about diversity and ecology of ciliates in the Baltic Sea is reviewed by analyzing the data from nearly 90 studies published since the end of the 18-th century. We revise the previous versions of the ciliate species checklists (Mironova et al., 2009; Telesh et al., 2008, 2009) and present the corrected checklist with the addition of the newly published data. Altogether, 743 species of ciliates are currently known for the Baltic Sea, which is more than in some other brackish-water seas (e.g. the Caspian and the Black Sea). Many species (172; 23% of the total number) were mentioned in the Baltic Sea only once and described in the taxonomic studies before the first half of the 20-th century. Relatively small part of species (76; ca. 10% of the total number) was observed in the most of the Baltic regions, and only 8 ciliate species were registered in all of them. Forty ciliate species were detected in the Baltic Sea for the first time during our 16-months-long investigations in the Neva Estuary in certain seasons of 2007 through 2010. The literature and our own data on composition and structure of ciliate communities, their seasonal dynamics and the role of ciliates in the pelagic ecosystems of different regions of the Baltic Sea are discussed.

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