Variability in Microbiological Data from a Stratified Eutrophic Lake

摘要

A survey of a stratified eutrophic lake was undertaken to determine the degree of variability in direct counts of bacteria, electron transport system activity, ATP concentration, chlorophyll a concentration and chemiluminescence, in the water column and the sediment. Heterogeneity in the horizontal and vertical dimension was studied in detail and the scale of variability was compared with within‐sample and between‐sample errors, and with seasonal fluctuations. Variability was greater in the sediment samples, and the coefficient of variation of samples taken at a single site was often as large as that between sites in a transect across the lake. Although this was not an exhaustive survey, the values provided should allow rough estimates to be made of the number of samples required to achieve a given level of precision in future investigati