Is the Dilution Technique Underestimating the Picophytoplankton Growth Measurements?

In oceanic communities, picophytoplankton often dominates phytoplankton biomass and productivity. Diel variations in abundance growth have been well documented. the current study, we used flow cytometry to assess short-term (3 h) of most dominant picophytoplankton, Synechococcus spp. picoeukaryotes, coastal regions northeastern Taiwan. To explore change mortality rate daytime over 24 h incubation, performed a two-point modified dilution experiment for measuring growth, viral lysis, nanoflagellate grazing rate. this rates picoeukaryotes were 0.21 0.06 h−1, those 0.15 h−1 respectively, values higher at significant levels than incubation. These picoeukaryote after incubation approximately underestimated 71% 55%, respectively. This finding suggests that estimates based on sampling may not accurately reflect true these populations ecologically relevant timescales.