Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Albuquerque 2001

PC16 Microbial Dynamics

Date: Thursday, February 15, 2001

Location: Southwest Hall

Thingstad, T, F, Univ. of Bergen, Bergen, Norway, frede.thingstad@im.uib.no

VIRAL ABUNDANCE AND DIVERSITY, AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH PARTITIONING OF BIOGEOCHEMICAL FLOW PATTERNS

Mechanisms controlling virus abundance and partitioning of loss of bacterial production between viral lysis and protozoan predation are discussed within the framework of an idealised Lotka-Volterra type model. This combines non-selective protozoan predation with host selective viral lysis of bacteria. The analysis leads to a reciprocal relationship between bacterial diversity and viruses, where coexistence of competing bacterial species is ensured by the presence of viruses 'killing the winner', while the differences in substrate affinity between the coexisting bacterial species determine viral abundance. The ability of the model to reproduce published observations such as an approximate 1:10 ratio between bacterial and viral abundance, and viral lysis to account for 10 – 50% of bacterial loss, is discussed.

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Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Albuquerque 2001

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