El papel de la escala en los patrones de variación del bacterioplancton en lagunas de alta montaña

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In all ecosystems, variability patterns of components and processes depend on the scale of study. Bacterioplankton is a component of pelagic food webs whose variability patterns across systems and within one system over time have been thoroughly studied. In this study, the effect of scale on variability patterns of bacterioplankton in high mountain lakes was studied. Two bacterioplankton descriptors (bacterial abundance (AB) and production PB)) and their potential control mechanisms by resources were considered within one lake during the ice free period (considered here as local scale) and in a set of lakes that reflect the heterogeneity of the study area (considered here as regional scale). At the regional scale, both bacterioplankton descriptors and their potential control mechanisms showed a higher variability than at local scale, except for dissolved iron. At the regional scale, PB was related to total phosphorus concentration, however, this dependence was not observed with AB nor at local scale. These results point out that, in Sierra Nevada lakes, bacterioplankton descriptors showed different behavior and that the change in scale involved different variability patterns. Therefore, in limnological studies, to extrapolate bacterioplankton patterns among scales, it is necessary to use the same descriptors and to guarantee that the same control mechanisms are operating.