A Cheek-List of Tintinnids (Protozoa: Ciliophora) in the Coastal Zone of Turkey

Abstract

In the last ten years, it was more clearly understood that in marine ecosystems members of Protozoa play a significant role in the flow of energy and biochemical cycles of carbon. It is known that tintinnids, also known as lorica-bearing ciliates, are the most important assistants of the cycle. In Turkey, which has coastlines of notable length in the Black Sea, Aegean Sea and Levantine Sea as well as harbors the Marmara Sea within the Straits Complex, tintinnids have been studied according to mainly their lorica shapes. In this study we used a lorica based classification and organized 109 tintinnid morpho-species from previously published works and we aimed to provide for the first time a reliable check-list of the region following the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature rules.