Chuck Pepe-Ranney edited Material and Methods.tex  almost 10 years ago

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\section{Materials and Methods}  \subsubsection{Experimental Design}  We placed test tube racks in one smaller (185L) and 3 larger (370L) flow-through mesocosms. Each mesocosm had an adjustable flow rate that resulted in a residence time of approximately 12h. Irregular variation in inflow rate meant that flow rate varied around that target throughout the day, however, regular monitoring ensured that the entire volume of each system was flushed approximately two times per day. To provide a surface for biofilm formation we attached coverslips to glass slides using nail polish and then attached each slide to the test tube racks using office-style binder clips. Twice daily 10 ml of 37 mM KPO4 KPO$_{4}$  and 1, 5 and 50 ml of 3.7M glucose were added to each of 3 mesocosms to achieve target C:P resource amendments of 10, 100 and 500 respectively. The control mesocosm did not receive any C or P amendments. \subsubsection{DOC and Chlorophyll Measurements}  To assess the efficacy of the carbon additions we sampled each mesocosm twice daily during the first week of the experiment to evaluate dissolved organic carbon (DOC) content. Six days after the initiation of the experiment we collected plankton on filters to evaluate planktonic Chl a and bacterial abundance. Once it was clear (day 8) that pool size of each community had been altered we filtered plankton onto 0.2 $\mu$m filters and harvested coverslips to assess bacterial and algal community composition (16S and 23S rDNA). In addition all mesoscosms were analyzed a second time (day 17) to assess how community composition of both the plankton and biofilm communities had been altered over time.