ABSTRACT
The interstitial spaces of marine sediments are known to harbor a rich diversity of protistan groups that appear to play a key role in the passage of energy through food webs. This chapter describes the maintenance and long-term culture of four groups of marine benthic protists: the ciliates, foraminifera, naked amoebae, and the heterotrophic flagellates. The advantage of establishing single cell cultures is self-evident. With care such cultures can be maintained for many years and now form the bulk of material in international culture collections. A range of benthic ciliates can be cultured in dishes by simple enrichment; either solid or liquid nutrients can be added to these cultures to increase numbers of bacteria and algae. Carnivorous species will require the separate cultivation of suitable ciliates to be added as food. Algal strains are established on suitable media to act as food materials for foraminiferan culture. Live foraminifera and seawater samples are then collected for establishment of suitable gnotobiotic cultures.
