A comparison of the growth kinetics of six marine heterotrophic nanoflagellates fed with one bacterial species

The growth kinetics of 6 species of marine heterotrophic nanoflagellates (5 to 13 μm) were compared. The maximum specific growth rates (μmax) of the flagellates ranged from 0.35 to 0.21 h−1 and the half-saturation constants (Ks) ranged from 1.1 to 45 × 106 bacterial cells ml−1. Theoretical threshold concentrations were calculated for each flagellate and the values of these generally ranged from 2 to 10 × 104 bacterial cells ml−1. The flagellate yield values (Y), maximum uptake rates (Umax) and maximum clearance rates (Fmax) for each flagellate species ranged from 0.3 to 13.2 × 10−3 cells bacterium−1, 5 to 259 bacteria cell−1 h−1 and 1 to 58 nl cell−1 h−1 respectively while volume-specific clearance values ranged from 1.4 × 104 to 8.7 × 105 body volumes h−1.