Dataset: Competition experiments of pCO2-conditioned clones in artificial communities; conducted in the Hutchins Laboratory, University of Southern California from 2009-2010

The “Switch” competition experiments conditioned clones at each pCO2 were competed in artificial communities at two other pCO2 levels. This experiment was performed after 12-months.

A flow chart of the experimental design is shown in Figure 1, including collection and incubation of the natural bloom in a short-term (2 week) pCO2 experiment, isolation of cells of all four species from each pCO2 treatment, conditioning of the isolates at the pCO2 from which they were isolated for one year, and recombining isolates into artificial communities to compete for 2-week periods following 4, 8 and 12 months of conditioning. Growth rates of each species were assessed during conditioning in unialgal cultures at the 8-month timepoint, as well as in mixed communities during the initial bloom experiment and the 12-month artificial community experiment. These data are available as a separate data set called Dinoflagellate Evo.