FIGURE 4 | 'Killing the winner' by predation.

Protistan predation can counterbalance the growth of invasive bacterial species in coastal marine waters. Rare bacteria, such as Alteromonas spp., rapidly overgrow the original microbial assemblages at artificially reduced grazing pressure (such as in dilution cultures). These species typically form cells that are larger than other planktonic bacteria and are therefore disproportionately reduced during the regrowth of the flagellate population. The vulnerability of such bacteria to grazing probably accounts for their rarity in the bacterial water column. Data compiled from Ref. 16.

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