Bacteria-chlorophyll relationships in Ethiopian lakes of varying salinity: Are soda lakes different?

Some soda lakes in East Africa are extreme with respect to their high abundance of bacteria and phytoplankton. We used regression analysis of 52 samples from 18 lakes in Ethiopia to demonstrate that soda lakes conform to a different relationship between bacterial abundance and phytoplankton biomass. The exponent of the power function relating bacteria and chlorophyll is much steeper for saline lakes, although still less than one. This may reflect that bacteria in eutrophic soda lakes are more substrate limited, and less controlled by grazers.