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Small-scale temporal and spatial variations in protistan community composition at the San Pedro Ocean Time-series station off the coast of southern California
Studies of the small-scale variability within protistan assemblages are scarce despite the fact that protists possess high potential growth rates and therefore may respond rapidly to environmental change. The authors investigated the small-scale temporal (daily, for 12 days) and spatial (17 stations, ~ 2 km apart) variability in protistan community composition at a station off the southern California coast using terminal-restriction fragment length polymorphism. Small-scale spatial variability was found to be generally lower than day-to-day variability. Comparison with a long-term time-series dataset from the same locale revealed that long-term (monthly, seasonal, and interannual) variability overshadowed small-scale spatial and temporal variability.
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