Consideration of errors in estimating kinetic parameters based on Michaelis‐Menten formalism in microbial ecology

When microbial heterotrophic activity appears to conform to Michaelis‐Menten kinetics, it is usual to estimate parameters of the model from linearly transformed, but unweighted, data. Theoretical error analysis indicates that if the uncertainties associated with untransformed data are homogeneous within a given experiment, it is inappropriate to fit transformed data in the usual manner. In such cases, an alternative method is proposed whereby untransformed and unweighted data are directly fit to an equivalent nonlinear equation. Results from experiments in the eastern Canadian arctic illustrate this alternative method of estimating kinetic parameters. A comparison of the two methods based on goodness‐of‐fit and precision of parameter estimates shows the alternative method to be more satisfactory.