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JPR Advance Access originally published online on May 25, 2006
Journal of Plankton Research 2006 28(8):783-791; doi:10.1093/plankt/fbl010
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© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Variability in microbial population dynamics between similarly perturbed mesocosms

Joaquin Martínez-Martínez1, Svein Norland2, Tron Frede Thingstad2, Declan C. Schroeder3, Gunnar Bratbak2, William H. Wilson1 and Aud Larsen2,*

1 Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Prospect Place, The Hoe, Plymouth PL1 3DH, UK, 2 Department of Biology, Jahnebakken 5, University of Bergen, PO Box 7800, N-5020 Bergen, Norway and 3 Marine Biological Association, Citadel Hill, Plymouth PL1 2PB, UK

* Corresponding Author: aud.larsen{at}bio.uib.no

Received March 13, 2006; accepted in principle April 12, 2006; accepted for publication May 9, 2006; published online May 25, 2006
Communicating editor : K.J. Flynn

Mesocosm experiments are important for studies of the pelagic ecosystem, and reproducibility of population dynamics and the effect of enclosing the water mass are essential aspects of such experiments. Nine mesocosms manipulated with daily nutrient additions were divided into three treatment groups, each of three units. All units were filled on the same day, but the three treatment groups differed in the timing of the start of nutrient additions. Abundance of phytoplankton, viruses and bacteria was followed for 12 days after filling, and 80% of the variance was ascribed to the population dynamics initiated by the nutrient perturbation, only 3% to the difference in the starting time of the perturbation and 1% to the placement of individual mesocosms at the raft. Although within-group variance of nutrient perturbation was small, there was a continuous increase over time, demonstrating a tendency for mesocosms to slowly diverge. We conclude that the transient response induced by the experimental perturbation strongly dominates the observed abundance variations and that, although present, the effects of delaying the onset of nutrient perturbation and of differences in along-raft position of the mesocosms were comparatively much smaller. Consequences for design of numerical models of microbial population dynamics are discussed.


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