The effects of freshwater flushing on marine heterotrophic protists--implications for ballast water management.

Survivorship of ballast-entrained marine heterotrophic protists was examined following freshwater flushing. The recovered taxa, including typical marine rhizopods such as Platyamoeba murchelanoi, Labyrinthula spp, Pontifex maximus, Thecamoeba orbis, and the ciliate Condylostoma arenarium, were reared in waters of various salinities. After 2 months, the original salinity subsample retained five protist taxa, the freshwater six, including the amoeba Cochliopodium bilimbosum, the brackish water 22 taxa, and the seawater 19 taxa. Since protists form a major component of marine microbial food webs, their survival may be instrumental in supporting complex ballast-entrained food webs. Our study raises questions as to the reliability of open-ocean exchange (OOE) or freshwater flushing as effective control measures.