Biodiversity of benthic ciliates of fresh waters of Lankaran natural area

The article presents data on the species diversity of benthic ciliates in various water bodies of the Lankaran natural area. The conducted studies have shown that the greatest species diversity of free-living ciliates was observed on silty soils prevailing in the fresh waters of the natural area. Among them, the biotopes of gray oily and algal oozes should be noted, on which more than 60% of all species were found. When studying ciliates in relation to the active reaction of the environment, it was revealed that, although in most cases, the maximum number of species is observed in a slightly alkaline environment, sometimes there are exceptions. Since ciliates belonging to the euryionic group have been noted several times at pH above 8.5 and at pH 4.7 with a relatively high number. The diversity of conditions in freshwater bodies is the main for the rich species diversity of freshwater benthic ciliafauna. In addition, observations of the food relationships of free-living ciliates with other groups of benthic inhabitants are presented. The noted ciliates were divided into groups, such as phytophages, bacteriophages, predators, and their diet was studied. Small diatoms have been found to be of great importance in the diet of many species. And the free-living ciliates themselves are food objects of large predatory species. Thus, we observed that representatives of the Trachelidae family actively feed on many bacteriophages ciliates.