Evidence map›Paper›PMID 22327271›Full record

ArticleMicrobial ecology2012

Contrasting community versus population-based estimates of grazing and virus-induced mortality of phytoplankton.

Michael A Staniewski, Cindy M Short, Steven M Short

Abstract read
PubMed Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Microbial ecology, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Michael A StaniewskiDepartment of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Cindy M Short
Steven M Short

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

In this study, grazing and virus-induced mortality of phytoplankton was investigated in a freshwater pond at the University of Toronto Mississauga, Canada, during September 2009. The modified dilution assay, which partitions phytoplankton mortality into virus and grazing-induced fractions, was used along with newly designed, taxon-specific quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) assays that target psbA gene fragments to estimate growth and mortality rates for both the entire phytoplankton community and four distinct phytoplankton populations. Community mortality was estimated via fluorometric determination of chlorophyll a (Chl a) concentrations, whereas the relative mortality of individual phytoplankton populations was estimated via qPCR. The sources and amounts of mortality for individual phytoplankton populations differed from those of the whole community, as well as from each other. Grazing was found to be the only significant source of mortality for the community (0.32 day(-1)), and the Prymnesiales (1.65 day(-1)) and Chroococcales (2.79 day(-1)) populations studied. On the other hand, the Chlamydomonadales population examined experienced both significant grazing (1.01 day(-1)) and viral lysis (0.96 day(-1)), while the Chlorellales population only experienced significant mortality as a result of viral lysis (1.38 day(-1)). Our results demonstrate that the combination of qPCR and the modified dilution method can be used to estimate both viral lysis and grazing pressure on several individual phytoplankton populations within a community simultaneously. Further, previously noted limitations of the modified dilution method associated with the dilution of specific phytoplankton populations at low abundances can be overcome with the qPCR-based approach. Most importantly, this study demonstrates that when used alone, whole community-based methods of assessing mortality can overlook valuable information about carbon flow in aquatic microbial food webs.

Indexed as

EcosystemVirus Physiological PhenomenaChlorophytaCyanobacteriaFood ChainHaptophytaPhytoplanktonPondsPopulation DynamicsViruses

Identifiers

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.