| Summary: | Progress Code: completed Statement: The Dates provided in temporal coverage are approximate only, and represent the beginning and end of the 2007 - 2010 Antarctic seasons. The latitudes and longitudes provided in spatial coverage are approximate only. See the word document in the file download for further information. Taken from the 2008-2009 Progress Report: Field work: Three sites in Prydz Bay were sampled at two week intervals following the formation of the sea ice until its breakout. Laboratory activity/analysis: A significant amount of analysis was undertaken at Davis during the course of the project, however the workload was significant for a single postdoctoral scientist. Consequently a portion of material is being returned to the University of Tasmania to complete the sample analysis. This will occur in the next 6 months. Metadata record for data from ASAC Project 2751 See the link below for public details on this project. Public Viruses are tiny particles that cannot reproduce by themselves. To reproduce they have to parasitise a bacterial cell, or another organism. In the sea viruses infect bacteria and phytoplankton cells and can cause those cells to die and break open, thereby liberating more virus particles into the environment to re-infect more host cells. They effectively short-circuit the carbon cycle - recycling carbon to the pool of dissolved and particulate organic carbon before it can be eaten by organisms higher in the food chain. Our research will elucidate the role of viruses in the water column and sea-ice over a year. Taken from the 2008-2009 Progress Report: Project objectives: BACKGROUND Since the microbial loop was first described, a wealth of data has appeared on the species composition and interactions among bacterioplankton and Protozoa, both heterotrophic and mixotrophic, and their role in biogeochemical cycling in marine and lacustrine environments. An additional dimension to the microbial loop was discovered when high concentrations of viruses (bacteriophage) were first ...
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