Studies On Classification And Species Diversity Of Ciliates In Plateau Swamp Wetlands In Gannan, Gansu In Spring

The classification and species diversity of ciliates in Plateau Swamp Wetlands in Gannan, Gansu in spring were studied by observing in vivo and protargol impregnation from April of 2009 to March of 2010. 114 species of ciliates were identified, including 15 new record species of ciliates in China and 18 unnamed species, belonging to 49 genera, 32 families, 12 orders, 3 classes, and 1 phylum, composed of 10 edaphic species, 88 aquatic-terrestrial species, and 16 freshwater species. The species similarity of soil and freshwater ciliate communities was 77.19%.Studies on distribution of ciliates in various sampling sites showed that 55 species distributed in the first sampling site in Manrima (MRM1) was the most abundant, then 53 species in the second sampling site in Manrima (MRM2); 52, 48, 38 and 31 species distributed in the Nima (NM), Cairima (CRM), Azi (AZ) and Niangmasi (NMS) site respectively, and the NMS site had the lest species, just for 31. According to species with frequency occurred in the various sites, there were 11 widely distributed species with frequency from 0.83 to 1.00, 39 common species with frequency from 0.5 to 0.67 and 64 rare species with frequency from 0.17 to 0.33. Similarity index between sampling sites in Gannan Plateau Marsh Wetland ranged from 0.1695 to 0.3846, which indicated species with little similarity in various sampling site. Ciliates density and Gleason–Margalef species diversity index responsed well to the differences of number of the ciliates species in various sampling sites.Pearson correlation of binary variables between environmental factors of sampling sites and structural parameter of ciliates community construction analyzed by using SPSS 13.0, which suggested that species number of ciliates and abundance had no significant correlation with soil temperature and pH ( p>0.05 ), but there existed significant positive correlation to soil moisture, coefficient was 0.858 and 0.822 respectively; there was significant negative correlation between species diversity index of ciliates and altitude ( -0.889, p<0.01 ); also significant negative correlation occurred between abundance of ciliates and altitude ( -0.824, p<0.01). Based on the values of correlation coefficient showed above, soil moisture was the most impact on species number of ciliates among all environmental factors, but the greatest impact on ciliate abundance was altitude, followed by soil moisture.Analysis of community structure exhibited that Kinetofragminophorea with 57 species belonging to 24 genera, 15 families, and 6 orders was the dominant group, occupied 50% of the total number of species identified in Gannan Plateau Marsh Wetland; Polyhymenophorea was the second group, including 37 species belonging to 18 genera, 10 families, and 3 orders occupied 32.46% of the total; Oligohymenophorea with 20species belonging to 7 genera, 7 families, and 3 orders occupied 10% of the total.Specific groups of soil were dominant in Plateau Marsh Wetlands in Gannan, Gansu. Prostomatida, Hypotrichida and Colpodida had more ciliates species than other orders due to their morphological and physical characteristics. Also the habitat was suitable for them. Although the area was a wetland area, there were not clear seasons but summer or winter for the climate and the seasons with more precipitation was relatively shorter than dry winter, so the most of the year was lack of water and lots of marsh wetland became to be meadow during the dry period. Therefore, the area was suitable for ciliates adapted for soil habitat. Of course, the region has the characteristics of wetlands and there existed more water than other arid environment, hence some aquatic or large ciliates species happened in this district, such as species of Bursariomorphida, Suctorida, Peritrichida. Thus it validated the specificity of wetlands; viz. wetland was a surface transition and had both common features of the land and waters.