Taxonomical study of ciliates genera (Orders: Spirotricha and Peritricha) in Zayandeh Rud river and the reservoir

Ciliates are one of the largest group of protozoans that they can be found in almost every aquatic environment. Ciliates serve as an intermediate link in the energy transfer from picoplankton to zooplankton, also serve as indicator of water eutrophication and pollution. Considering the important roles that ciliates play in the ecological relations of aquatic ecosystems, in order to conduct ecological studies, their identification, morphological aspects and taxonomic position are of great importance. The present research is the result of study on plankton and periphyton ciliates sampling of ZayandehRud river and reservoir. In this research, Spirotricha and Peritricha ciliates orders from 8 stations in Zayandehrud river and 4 stations in reservoir were studied . To identify ciliates,a number of reputable sources were used. The results include 22 genera and 13 families . There are 10 families belonging to the order Spirotricha and 3 families belonging to the order Peritricha .