The Ecology of Heterotrophic Microflagellates

Abstract

The wide variety of unicellular, phagotrophic eucaryotes known collectively as heterotrophic microflagellates has recently attracted much attention particularly among biological oceanographers. Knowledge of the morphology, systematic affinities, and general biology of members of this heterogeneous assemblage of protists is still far from complete. Even so, literature spanning over more than a century gives evidence of the diversity of these forms and of their ubiquitous occurrence. Lohmann (1911, 1920) attempted to quantify these small protozoans in seawater and assess their ecological significance, and Griessmann (1914) isolated a variety of forms in culture and described aspects of their biology.