A quantitative comparison of microbial community structure of estuarine sediments from microcosms and the field

Estuarine soft-bottom sediments in microcosms and the field were compared with regard to microbial community structure. Community structure was determined by analyzing the fatty acids derived from the microbial lipids in the sediments. Fatty acid profiles were compared using a multivariate statistical approach. Experiments were performed using sediments from St. George Sound and Apalachicola Bay, Florida. The community structure of St. George Sound sediments was apparently controlled by epibenthic predators. In Apalachicola Bay, the dominant influences were physical factors related to the flow of the Apalachicola River. In the St. George Sound experiment, microbial communities in the microcosms differed from those in the field after only 2 weeks, and the degree of this difference increased substantially as time progressed. In the Apalachicola Bay experiment, although microbial communities in the microcosms were detectably different from those in the field, the degree of this difference was not large nor did it increase with time. This differential behavior of sediment communities from different sites may be related to the different ecological factors regulating community composition at these sites.