E.g., For freshwater ciliates:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/277543521_Responses_of_three_freshwater_planktonic_ciliates_with_different_feeding_modes_to_cryptophyte_and_diatom_prey

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/27281177_Niche_separation_in_common_prostome_freshwater_ciliates_The_effect_of_food_and_temperature

http://www.aslo.info/lo/toc/vol_47/issue_5/1447.pdf

This one cites a lot of other studies:

https://www.uibk.ac.at/limno/files/pdf/weisse06a_avh.pdf

For marine ciliates:

http://www.aslo.org/lo/toc/vol_43/issue_3/0458.html

Article Responses of three freshwater planktonic ciliates with diffe...

Article Niche separation in common prostome freshwater ciliates: The...

Dear Lennart,

one could differ the question into three main sectors:

1) character of feeding and proportion of different groups in food base;

2) regularities in feeding esp quantitative;

3) different trophic indices and trophic diversity.

List of references is giant, so better to select some groups what you wont to do with. E.g., when I started with  the metopidae family in 1977 I gathered all existing information about it feeding. but my experience shows that even having priorities exclusions are enough frequent. Several times I saw Dileptids or Phialina & Lacrymaria feeding on algae and algae-like flagellates. For productional studies always important is the question how much of the Gross primary production iseating by ciliates, and how much of ciliates production is utilized by ciliophagous ciliates!

So, sometimes practically all.

I'm sure you are familiar with majority of T.Fenchel's papers, but may be some attached can be useful for you.

About regularities. You can see the Chapter of my book I recommend my last reply

From energy budget of small hydrobionts to the flow of energy through hydroecosystem. Their I proposed some equations obtained from the experimental study even from brackish-waters, and some citation of literature.

And, of cource, about diversity. Normally protist ecologist pays more attention on abundance, biomass and sometimes on functional indices. Only rare attantion is paing for trophic structure diversity. but it is extra interesting. Communities of ciliates, only depending, plankton communities can KEEP stable structure of feeding. Look, please,  Community structure in cryophilic infusoria on my site from 1998. As well you can find their some reference that can be yseful to you.

Finishing my small explanation wont to ask you pay attantion on famous Johanna Laybourn book from 1984 (atatching, but google pdf not extra high quality).

i have a lot of more for different group, but should specify...

Best wishes,

Andrey

Thank you for your answers!

Andrey, let me explain our experiments scope:

We used dilution method in situ to evaluate the coupling between mesozooplankton, microzooplankton, and phytoplankton in three near coastal hard bottom embayments of brackist Baltic Sea. This far we have found that near coastal mesozooplankton is food-limited by phytoplankton, so it is primariliy a bottom-up control. Still, we do not know the specific role of microzooplankton within that ecosystem. We did not measure the microzooplankton directly from the dilution experiments but only analysed the samples took directly from sea at the beginning of 6-hour dilution experiment.

Generally, we are interested in the first sector you described, but also in the third one, and a little bit into the second sector :)

At the moment I am composing a table of microzooplankton species 

1) body type (loricated, naked, partly loricated

2) trophic role (specialist, generalist, heterotroph, mixotroph)

3) feeding target or preferred food (bacteria, dinoflagellates, phytoplankton)

4) feeding particle min and max size

5) clearance rate (max, min and average)

6) what particle size is preferred

Although, there are quite diverse methods how the clearance rate has been measured, they have quite similar results.

Maybe I should include also the growth rate and oxygen consumption? If you are interested what species I am dealing with, I can send you the list. Some of the species are easy to find information and some of them are probably missing any information.

Dear Lennart,

but I hope uoy even measure size?! As well critically important to calculate large carnivorous protists, as their amount can be enough large to have zero issued production for next level - like Phialina-Lacrymaria group. other important thing is to have data in vertical distribution on primary production/decomposition.

As to growth rate and other functional indices, it is the very interesting task, and the difference between theoretical potential and realised in vivo can show the tendency, esp if you are testing several mainly dominant and sub-domonant species !

Yeah, without hesitation the majority of intraplankton relations , esp in oligo- and beta-mesotrophic conditions has biocoenotic mechanisms of regulation. In eutrophic it looks different but in reality algae are forming everything – pH, chemical composition, and even physical factors as changing sencitivity (reflecting) for sun rays ...

Send me the list, I will see, may be can find some information.

Andrey

Dear Andrey,

Yes I measured every cell and we have data on primary production.

I attached the file with list and info I could find this far about these species.

Lennart

One more thing, most of the dinoflagellates are not in this list, I am working on it.

Best!

Lennart

Dear Lennart,

may be i can help you. Cannot do now any complicated work because gathering with family for Suth-East Asia (Thailand, Indonesia, East Timor, Malaysia and after that into East Africa). This country science is over so may be will try smth other. It all cost 6 month period, but I will try to be in permanent contact with colleagues, except of climbing Cota Cinabalu etc. So, I'm attaching for you my database for ciliates. Please, do not distribute, as it will be for a patent attaining (still have no time to prepare). We are using it (one of a lot of databases) for calculating structural and functional parameters of communities. Open it like txt file. For help look attached file. Can send you program, but it needs experience to use. Moreover, the database for the Baltic Sea should be improved.

Previously we use some sub-program I wrote for the prim. pro. decomp. of benthos, and peryphiton but now V. Pliashechnik elaborated Excel program to do it.

Frankly,

Andrey

Hi!

Thank you very much, if you want it not to spread you can erase it from here as well for instance, I already downloaded it. I try to make my list work during two months if everything goes well. So enjoy your adventure and I try to not barge in your activities ;)

Best!

Lennart

Dear Andrey,

What is the second digit abou, ehat is meant by сапробність?

Also I do not understand the third and fourth digits but it seems I don't need them.

Best!

Lennart