International Journal of Evolutionary Biology

Research Article

New Insights into the Effects of Several Environmental Parameters on the Relative Fitness of a Numerically Dominant Class of Evolved Niche Specialist

Table 1

Wrinkly Spreader biofilm characteristics in modified microcosms.


Treatment		Relative microcosm growth ()	Relative biofilm strength ()	Relative attachment ()

Standard microcosm	No oil, 1x nutrients

With oil overlays	10 mm
	20 mm
	40 mm

With reduced-nutrient levels	0.1x
With reduced-nutrient levels	0.01x

Altered A-L interface shapes	Concave
Altered A-L interface shapes	Convex

Microcosms were incubated for 3 days before assay. Relative means ± SE are shown (). The reference microcosms for the oil-overlay and reduced-nutrient assays were provided by the standard microcosms. The reference microcosms for the altered A-L interface shape assays were provided by the concave microcosms. Comparisons of relative means were by assay and treatment. For the oil-overlay and reduced-nutrient experiments, means not linked by the same letter are significantly different (TK-HSD, ). For the A-L interface shape experiment, means which are significantly different are indicated by (-test, ).