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Large viruses and infected microeukaryotes in Ross Sea summer pack ice habitats

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An Erratum to this article was published on 14 May 2003

Abstract

A variety of Ross Sea summer pack ice habitats between 66 and 75°S were examined for viruses ≥110 nm capsid diameter. Maximum abundances of these viruses likely to infect eukaryotes were 106–107 ml-1 brine in surface, interior, and bottom habitats and constituted up to 18% of the total (all sizes) viruses. There is abundant ultrastructural evidence for infection of a variety of microheterotrophs and some autotrophs. One station exhibited the classical characteristics of a lower latitude algal bloom with potential viral control. The blooming alga, Pyramimonas tychotreta Daugbjerg 2000, was infected, as were two abundant heterotrophs, Cryothecomonas spp. and an unidentified flagellate, that fed on P. tychotreta. Infections were observed in only one life history stage (multiflagellate cells) of P. tychotreta, suggesting a relationship among virus-induced lysis, life-history stages, physiology, and environmental factors regulating the life cycle. There is good evidence that diatoms are not a likely source of the large viruses, and viruses in general are not a major food source for ice microheterotrophs in summer.

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Acknowledgements

I thank C. Venn and J.N. King for help with sampling and sample processing on the cruise, M.O. Jeffries, J.-L. Tison and S. Nihashi for coring, and C. Fritsen and the BX-325 team for collecting the slush. I thank Chief Scientist M.O. Jeffries, J. Barnes and the ASA team, Capt. J. Borkowski and the officers and crew of the "Nathaniel B. Palmer" and my NBP99–1 colleagues for making the cruise a success. Thanks go to B. Riggs and L.C. Van De Werfhorst for help in the laboratory, to R. Zalpuri of U.C. Berkeley for thin sectioning, to M.O. Jeffries for sharing sea ice physical data, to C. Fritsen et al. for sharing pigment data, and to A. Gibson for discussions on ice community data. Special thanks go to J. Fuhrman, D. Bird, G. Steward and C. Suttle for advice on light microscope preparations, to H. Thomsen, N. Daugbjerg, Ø. Moestrup, and H. Marchant for advice on taxonomy, to R.T. Hinegardner and D.L. Garrison for discussions and reviewing the manuscript, and to two anonymous reviewers for helpful suggestions. This work was supported by National Science Foundation grant OPP-9725136 to M.M. Gowing.

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  1. Institute of Marine Sciences, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA

    M. M. Gowing

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Communicated by P.W. Sammarco, Chauvin

An erratum to this article is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00227-003-1121-9.

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Gowing, M.M. Large viruses and infected microeukaryotes in Ross Sea summer pack ice habitats. Marine Biology 142, 1029–1040 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-003-1015-x

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