We conducted a meta-analysis of temperature, phytoplankton size structure, and productivity in cold, temperate, and warm waters of the world's oceans. Our data set covers all combinations of temperature and resource availability, thus allowing us to disentangle their effects. The partitioning of biomass between different size classes is independent of temperature, but depends strongly on the rate of resource use as reflected in the rate of primary production. Temperature and primary production explained 2% and 62%, respectively, of the variability in the contribution of microphytoplankton to total biomass. This contribution increases rapidly with total biomass and productivity, reaching values . 80% when chlorophyll a concentration is . 2 mg L 21 or primary production is . 100 mg C L 21 d 21 , irrespective of water temperature. Conversely, picophytoplankton contribution is substantial (. 40%), at all temperatures, only when chlorophyll a concentration is , 1 mg L 21 or primary production is , 50 mg C L 21 d 21 . The temperature-size rule cannot explain these changes, which instead reflect fundamental reorganizations in the species composition of the assemblage, arising from taxon-and sizedependent differences in resource acquisition and use. Given that resource availability, rather than temperature per se, is the key factor explaining the relative success of different algal size classes, there will be no single, universal effect of global warming on phytoplankton size structure.

Using 31-yr data from measurements in a lake that has experienced change in eutrophication status, I showed that the effects of global warming on chlorophyll a (Chl a)-normalized maximum rates of photosynthesis (P max : Chl a) may be positive, nonsignificant, or negative, depending on nutrient availability. The magnitude of P max : Chl a change in response to warming showed hyperbolic relationships with phosphorus concentrations; it was positive and constant when total phosphorus (TP) in the lake water exceeded 22 mg P L 21 (eutrophic conditions) but was negative when TP was lower (nutrient-poor conditions), indicating direct negative effects of warming on primary productivity (PP) under phosphorus scarcity. Vertically integrated PP responses corroborate those of P max : Chl a. These data also showed long-term seasonal variations in the sensitivity of phytoplankton productivity to temperature. The observed hyperbolic curves strongly suggest that the ''limiting-nutrient cell quota''-based mechanism reported so far only in laboratories (by studies analyzing temperature-nutrient effects on microalgal growth or photosynthesis) operates in nature and plays a key role in determining phytoplankton response to warming of waters. The present findings provide insight on how phytoplankton productivity may respond to future warming in lakes of differing eutrophication status.

Dilution-regrowth experiments coupled to fluorescence in situ hybridization were conducted with samples from two humic reservoirs in order to examine how inorganic nutrients (N, P) affect free-living bacterioplankton phylogenetic groups and subsequently the quality of dissolved organic matter (DOM). The experiments were complemented by analyses of the empirical relationships between the targeted bacteria, nutrients, DOM and grazers. The ratio of absorbance of waters (A) at 250 and 365 nm (A(250 nm):A(365 nm)), which has been found to increase with the proportion of small molecules in the DOM pool in other humic waters, was used as an index of DOM quality. When nutrient stimulated bacteria, both the responses of bacterial groups (in the absence of grazers) and the ratio A(250 nm):A(365 nm) were generally different between treatments (+N, +P, +NP), suggesting that in nutrient-poor systems, differences in the type of inorganic nutrient supply will ultimately cause differences in DOM quality. The ratio A(250 nm),:A(365 nm) peaked in the +N treatments where members of the Planctomycetes (PLA) were the most stimulated group, and across treatments, PLA best explained (positive relationship) variations in this ratio. Consistent with this, the in situ data showed that the removal of the negative effects of flagellates on PLA yielded the highest R(2) in attempts to use bacterial groups to explain variations in A(250 nm):A(365 nm). These findings provide lines of evidence, not previously demonstrated in natural waters, that Planctomycetes may be an important factor changing the DOM quality, particularly in nutrient-poor systems when supplied with inorganic N.

In order to assess the factors that determine the dynamics of bacteria with high nucleic acid content in aquatic systems, we (i) conducted 24-h in situ dialysis experiments, involving different fractions of plankton and unfiltered water and (ii) examined empirical relationships between bacteria and both abiotic factors and protists, in boreal humic freshwaters (reservoir and lakes) in the James Bay region (Québec, Canada). Bacteria were subdivided into two subgroups on the basis of their nucleic acid content assessed by flow cytometry. The abundance of bacteria with the highest nucleic acid content and high light scatter (HNA-hs) was significantly correlated, across sites, to bacterial production, whereas bacteria with lower nucleic acid content (LNA) and total bacteria were not. In addition, HNA-hs growth was higher and more variable than LNA growth, indicating that HNA-hs were the most dynamic bacteria. Heterotrophic nanoflagellate and ciliate biomass represented, on average, 5 and 13% of bacterial biomass, respectively. Both in ambient waters and in experiments, ciliates were significantly and negatively correlated with bacteria, whereas heterotrophic nanoflagellates, likely under the grazing pressure from ciliates and metazooplankton, were not. Among ciliates, Cyclidium glaucoma appeared to play an important role. Its growth was significantly and negatively correlated to that of HNA-hs but not to that of LNA. In ambient waters, the abundance of this species explained 56% of the variations in HNA-hs abundance and only 27% of those for LNA. The abundances of total bacteria and LNA significantly increased with chlorophyll a, whereas those of HNA-hs did not. In addition, during the experiments, the estimated potential losses of HNA-hs significantly increased with the initial abundance of C. glaucoma. These results suggest selective removal of the most dynamic bacteria by C. glaucoma and indicate that ciliates may play an important role in the dynamics of active bacteria in natural waters. These findings suggest the existence, within the aquatic microbial food webs, of keystone species that are very important in regulating the activity structure of bacteria.

Due to the covariation between temperature and resource availability in the surface ocean, a correct assessment of resource supply is crucial to determine if temperature has a direct effect on phytoplankton size structure. To remove the effect of resources, L opez-Urrutia and Mor an analyzed data subsets with narrow ranges of variation in Chlorophyll a (Chl a) concentration and found that temperature is correlated with Chl a partitioning among size classes, from which they concluded that temperature is an important variable to explain the variability of phytoplankton size structure. Our analysis, however, shows that resource supply varies widely also within these subsets and, importantly, that it is inversely correlated with temperature. Therefore, the relationship between temperature and size structure reflects instead the effect of resources. When groups of samples with similar resource supply conditions are considered, no correlation between temperature and phytoplankton size structure is observed, which invalidates the conclusion of L opez-Urrutia and Mor an. Even within restricted ranges of variation for phytoplankton biomass and production, changes in resource supply alone are sufficient to explain the variability of phytoplankton size structure in the sea. *Correspondence: em@uvigo.es † Present address: D epartement des Sciences Biologiques, Universit e du Qu ebec a Montr eal, Canada 1848 LIMNOLOGY and OCEANOGRAPHY

We used fingerprinting and cloning-sequencing to study the spatiotemporal dynamics and diversity of Planctomycetes in two perialpine lakes with contrasting environmental conditions. Planctomycetes, which are less-abundant bacteria in freshwater ecosystems, appeared to be structured in the same way as the entire bacterial community in these ecosystems. They were more diversified and displayed fewer temporal variations in the hypolimnia than in the epilimnia. Like the more-abundant bacterial groups in aquatic systems, Planctomycetes communities seem to be composed of a very small number of abundant and widespread operational taxonomic units (OTUs) and a large number of OTUs that are present at low abundance. This indicates that the concept of "abundant or core" and "rare" bacterial phylotypes could also be applied to less-abundant freshwater bacterial phyla. The richness and diversity of Planctomycetes were mainly driven by pH and were similar in both of the lakes studied, whereas the composition of the Planctomycetes community seemed to be determined by a combination of factors including temperature, pH, and nutrients. The relative abundances of the dominant OTUs varied over time and were differently associated with abiotic factors. Our findings demonstrate that less-abundant bacterial phyla, such as Planctomycetes, can display strong spatial and seasonal variations linked to environmental conditions and suggest that their functional role in the lakes studied might be attributable mainly to a small number of phylotypes and vary over space and time in the water column.

Stream and lake ecosystems in agricultural watersheds are exposed to fungicide inputs that can threaten the structure and functioning of aquatic microbial communities. This research analyzes the impact of the triazole fungicide tebuconazole (TBZ) on natural biofilm and plankton microbial communities from sites presenting different degrees of agricultural contamination. Biofilm and plankton communities from less-polluted (LP) and polluted (P) sites were exposed to nominal concentrations of 0 (control), 2 and 20 μg TBZ L(-1) in 3-week microcosm experiments. Descriptors of microbial community structure (bacterial density and chlorophyll-a concentration) and function (bacterial respiration and production and photosynthesis) were analyzed to chart the effects of TBZ and the kinetics of TBZ attenuation in water during the experiments. The results showed TBZ-induced effects on biofilm function (inhibition of substrate-induced respiration and photosynthetic activity), especially in LP-site communities, whereas plankton communities experienced a transitory stimulation of bacterial densities in communities from both LP and P sites. TBZ attenuation was stronger in biofilm (60-75%) than plankton (15-18%) experiments, probably due to greater adsorption on biofilms. The differences between biofilm and plankton responses to TBZ were likely explained by differences in community structure (presence of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) matrix) and microbial composition. Biofilm communities also exhibited different sensitivity levels according to their in-field pre-exposure to fungicide, with P-site communities demonstrating adaptation capacities to TBZ. This study indicates that TBZ toxicity to non-targeted aquatic microbial communities essentially composed by microalgae and bacteria was moderate, and that its effects varied between stream and lake microbial communities.

Long-term (1972-2005) data from Lake Geneva were analyzed to assess whether primary productivity (PP) has declined over years in response to phosphorus (P) reduction measures implemented in the 1970s, and to determine which factors were responsible for the response observed. The results revealed increases in PP and chlorophyll a, and a concomitant decrease in water transparency, which contrasts sharply with other large lakes undergoing nutrient loading controls. Our data revealed long-term increases in incident light, water temperature, water column stability (WCS), N:P ratios and Baccilariophyceae. Nitrogen, Daphnia and WCS, rather than P, were the major factors driving PP during the first part of the study (1972-1988). When P became the main nutrient driving PP (after 1988), the latter still increased, partly as a result of long-term increases in light and WCS, two factors not often considered when exploring climate influence on phytoplankton. Daphnia abundance decreased over time, and its coupling with phytoplankton changed from positive during the period of P abundance (1972-1988) to negative during the period of P scarcity (1989-2005), suggesting a change in the influence of Daphnia on phytoplankton and in food web structure. These data support the view that increases in climate-related factors may render the restoration of lakes more difficult, and showed that neglecting nitrogen, light and WCS, may hamper our understanding of lake responses to re-oligotrophication or lead to inappropriate management decisions, particularly in the context of global warming.