Simultaneous Study of the Growth and Grazing Mortality Rates of Microbial Food Web Components in a Mediterranean Coastal Lagoon

Abstract

The abundances of 17 cytometric groups encompassing four groups of bacteria, three groups of cyanobacteria, six groups of eukaryotic picophytoplankton ( 1, suggesting that predators efficiently grazed and transferred these preys. Surprisingly, the observed variations in predator abundance across seasons did not necessarily correspond with changes in grazing pressure. The significant positive relationship found between water temperature and bacterial grazing mortality rates and the reverse trend observed for larger eukaryotic prey suggested that warmer water increases small prokaryote transfer to higher trophic levels but disadvantages larger eukaryotic prey transfer.

Keywords

• bacteria
• dilution
• food web
• growth
• grazing
• Mediterranean coastal lagoon