All animals and plants have different defense mechanisms that they use to give them an advantage in their environment. Animals, like a sea urchin, may have spikes, while hippos have large jaws. The red alga Bonnemaisonia has a chemical defense that prevents harmful bacteria from growing on it. In this experiment, the defense production in Bonnemaisonia hamifera was manipulated in multiple cultures in order to measure the cost and fitness benefits in which producing those defenses has on the plants algae. For one culture, the control was the impaired chemical defense of the alga, but it was exposed to an externally controlled epibacterial load, while the other culture was exposed to a natural epibacterial load. After measuring the length and observing the condition of the leaves after weeks, the experiment was concluded. The first culture resulted in significant plant growth while the second culture resulted in reduced plant growth, along with bleaching of the leaves, signaling bacterial infection within the leaves. Therefore, we can conclude that the cost of the chemical defenses in this species of red alga outweighs the fitness benefits. Although it would grow much larger if the epibacterial load were controlled, it's not controlled in the natural environment. In the natural environment, the results of the second culture would result, and the alga would have bleached cells and little to no growth in leaves.
This article doesn't waste any time talking about a larger concept or taking several turns to wind up at the cost of chemical defenses of red algae. It's short and straight to the point, which definitely makes it much easier to read. I understand that it discourages people to read long scientific articles, but this was a simple read and it wasn't too complex to understand either. The abstract had several details that made it easier for the reader to know what they're going to read about as opposed to giving a very vague description of the article.
