长江口低盐水域纤毛虫的区系及多样性

The ciliated protozoa play an important role in the aquatic micro-food web. But, due to various reasons, researches related with ciliates have been lacking for a long term in the region of the Yangtze River Estuary. This project will focus on the biodiversity, fauna structure, and temporal and spatial distribution of ciliates in the low-salinity waters of the Yangtze River Estuary. And researches will include species/gene biodiversity, morphology, geographical /ecological distribution and annual variation of ciliates. The results aim at supplying the first information for the databases of ciliates community structure, taxonomy, systematics and ecology in this low-salinity area. Meanwhile, exploring the relationship between ciliate fauna and environmental factors will provide a theoretical reference for the related fields, such as environmental monitoring and protection, aquatic ecology; and it will also create a basic file data for the historical changes of animal geography and local environment....The innovation of this project including the following points: .1) This is the first investigation aiming at the ciliates biodiversity in the low-salinity waters near the Yangtze River Estuary, and the results will improve our knowledge of whole biodiversity and biotic community of this area. .2) The investigation will lead to a set of morphology and taxonomy data, and update the ciliate systematics and gene database..3) Exploring basic fauna structure and their relationship with environmental factors will supply the information greatly needed in the fields such as environmental remediation and controlling of aquatic disease...The applicant has been doing research on ciliates biodiversity and taxonomy for years, and has published 16 papers in the journals of protozoology. The taxonomy, ecology and molecular methods adopted in this project have been confirmed valid in the research projects the applicant attended before. Thus, the results and productivity of this project will be guaranteed.

纤毛虫原生动物在水体微食物网中处于重要的能量传递枢纽地位，但由于种种原因，国内有关长江下游尤其是河口地区的相关研究长期空缺。本课题以长江口低盐水域为客体，围绕自由生活纤毛虫类群，开展对区系结构、时空分布及多样性的研究，内容主要涉及纤毛虫的物种/基因多样性，形态分类学、地理/生态分布、年周期变化规律。主要目的包括：为该低盐水域内的纤毛虫群落构成、分类学、分子系统学及生态学等基本信息库的建立给出第一手的资料；同时探讨纤毛虫的区系结构与环境间的相互关系，将为长江口的环境监测、生态保护、水体生态学等相关领域研究提供一份国内急需的理论参考，也为动物地理学、长江河口地区的环境历史变迁建立一份档案性资料。

针对长江口低盐水域的各类生境开展了纤毛虫多样性采集，并利用现代分类学技术对所获种类进行形态分类学研究，结果发现并建立1个新目、9个新种，对11个前人报道中定义模糊不清的种类进行了重描述，同时对此区域优势/常见种、新纪录种提供了详细刻画，这些结果进一步丰富了纤毛虫多样性数据，也为此地区纤毛虫鉴定提供了一份手册性资料。同时，对其中16个物种进行了首次测序，基于新获取的SSU rRNA基因序列的系统分析揭示了小胸目、咽膜目、斜头目及尖毛虫科内的疑难/存疑阶元的系统地位，这些发现对丰富纤毛虫的基因库及对纤毛虫门系统的进一步修订具有重要意义。另外，通过对设定样点的周期性采集、物种鉴定和统计、理化因子测定，揭示了此区域纤毛虫群落结构及区系的基本特征，为此区域的生态学研究及环境保护提供了基础信息。