Abstract:
Metadata record for data from ASAC Project 2352
See the link below for public details on this project.
---- Public Summary from Project ----
In the last ten years it has become evident that viruses are common in the sea and lakes, occurring in concentrations of one to tens of millions per mL. They attack bacteria and phytoplankton and cause cell destruction or lysis. In so doing they short
... circuit the cycling of carbon - one of the most important chemical cycles in nature, thereby preventing bacteria and phytoplankton being exploited as food by other organisms in the planktonic food chain. Viruses may themselves be consumed as food by flagellated protozoa, and may also play a role in transferring genetic material between their host organisms, thus maintaining diversity. Previous work on the relationship between planktonic bacteria and the dissolved organic carbon(DOC) (their food source) indicates that growth continues all year and that peaks of bacterial growth a closely correlated with peaks in the availability of DOC. The evidence points to a cycling of carbon that may be mediated, at least in part, by viral activity. Preliminary work indicates viral abundance of 1.01 to 3.28 x 106 mL-1 during the summer, with bacteria to viral ratios of 8.41 to 23.42 in Crooked lake and Lake Druzhby.
This project will determine the interactions between viruses and the other components of the largely microbial communities in the two largest freshwater lakes in the Vestfold Hills, and provide a picture of overall carbon cycling in the plankton. It will also assess the impact of UV radiation on viruses and the cycling of carbon. A current project that is focussed on providing continuous data on the physical characteristics of the lake water columns as part of the UK's Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) multi-disciplinary E-Science programme using remote sensing, is currently developing the models that will be used is this project. The models and the data bases gained will provide a valuable picture of the functioning of Antarctica's delicate lake ecosystems and enable us to predict the impacts of climate change and UV radiation on them.
The download file contains a word document detailing methods used in the collection of these data, plus two excel spreadsheets of data.
The fields in this dataset are:
Virus data
Dissolved organic carbon
Total organic carbon
Bacterial production
Lysogenic bacteria
pH
Conductivity
Photosynthetically active radiation (PAR)
Temperature
Soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP)
Ammonia
Chlorophyll a
Depth
Date 
