The biogeography, phylogeny, and dispersal of freshwater and terrestrial free-living ciliates in Florida, USA.

Abstract

As organisms at the foundations of food webs, ciliated protozoa are an integral part of the microbial loop and the ecosystems they support. This project was designed to explore the freshwater and terrestrial ciliate populations of sub-tropical Florida, USA, an uninvestigated geographic range with similar environmental characteristics to those found in previously- studied locations in sub-tropical and tropical Africa. Through extensive sample collection covering a wide variety of habitats, morphological and molecular techniques were used to describe the target ciliate taxa present in these environments and to determine their presence/absence and their geographical distribution. Of special interest were the ‘flagship’ ciliate species found, with some recorded outside of Africa for the first time, and the first records made for the Americas of both freshwater and terrestrial flagships. As a result of major sampling, some ciliate species were found to be new to science, and these are described in detail at both morphological and molecular levels. The 18S rRNA gene sequences were obtained for several species, some for the very first time, and are provided here to investigate phylogeny. Long-term monitoring of four sites produced a large dataset of water parameters and occurrence of target ciliate species, allowing a better understanding of the niche requirements for these ciliates. The development of dynamic models was undertaken to enhance discussions surrounding potential dispersal mechanisms of target ciliate species over large distances. Agent based models were constructed to visualize microcosm interactions of a target ciliate species to various environmental stimuli.