The seasonal succession of plankton is an annually repeated process of community
assembly during which all major external factors and internal interactions shaping …

This paper first reviews the concept of functional diversity in general terms and then applies
it to free-living aquatic ciliates. Ciliates are extremely versatile organisms and display an …

Background The phytoplankton spring bloom in freshwater habitats is a complex, recurring,
and dynamic ecological spectacle that unfolds at multiple biological scales. Although …

Acquisition of phototrophy is widely distributed in the eukaryotic tree of life and can involve
algal endosymbiosis or plastid retention from green or red origins. Species with acquired …

The purpose of this article is to pull together various elements from current knowledge
regarding the natural history of free-living protozoa in fresh waters. We define their functional …

Small unicellular algae in the size range of picoplankton (0.2-2.0/-Lm; Sieburth et al., 1978)
are ubiquitous components of pelagic ecosystems. They contribute substantially to both …

Biomass size spectra were calculated from comprehensive microscopic assessment of
plankton organisms in large, deep Lake Constance (Bodensec). They revealed an …

In late summer 1993 an intensive study was carried out on protozoan grazing in the
epilimnion and metalimnion of the eutrophic Rímov Reservoir in south Bohemia. On …

The timing of various plankton successional events in Lake Constance was tightly coupled
to a large-scale meteorological phenomenon, the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). A causal …

Plankton ecologists ultimately focus on forecasting, both applied and environmental
outcomes. We review how appreciating planktonic ciliates has become central to these …