FIGURE 3.

Results from experiments investigating effects of microbial abundance and community composition on M. pyrifera recruitment. In addition to quantifying the kelp propagule success with gametophyte measurements, a qualitative analysis was performed on images of developing M. pyrifera gametophytes. Morphological development of gametophytes were assessed under low, intermediate, environmental, and high microbial abundances for the (A) Point Loma and (B) Catalina Island microbial treatments. Microbial abundance counts are presented from epifluorescence microscopy data collected at the beginning of the experiment (cells ml^-1).