SEASONAL FLUCTUATION OF BACTERIAL NUMBERS NEAR THE ANTARCTIC CONTINENT (Eleventh Symposium on Polar Biology)

• Main Authors: John A. E. GIBSON, Russell C. GARRICK, Harry R. BURTON
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: Proceeding 1990
• Subjects: Antarctic; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Polar Biology; Proceedings of the NIPR Symposium on Polar Biology
• Online Access: https://nipr.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_uri&item_id=5084; http://id.nii.ac.jp/1291/00005084/; https://nipr.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_action_common_download&item_id=5084&item_no=1&attribute_id=18&file_no=1

Bacterial numbers were monitored on a regular basis near Australia's Davis Base from May 1987 until January 1988. Samples were collected from depths between the surface and 80m. Numbers were low (mean: ca. 1.1×10^5 cells/ml) during the winter period but rose to between 2.5×10^5 and 8.0×10^5 cells/ml, depending on depth, in October, when considerable amounts of detrital material were present in water column and available for heterotrophic activity. A significant decrease in bacterial numbers occurred in early December to <0.5×10^5 cells/ml, but recovered later in December to >5×10^5 cells/ml; the increase in numbers occurred at the same time as a bloom of the alga Phaeocystis pouchetii. The greatest population of bacteria (>1×10^6 cells/ml) was recorded in January, by which time the algal bloom was decreasing.