Seasonal and diel abundance of viruses and occurrence of lysogeny/bacteriocinogeny in the marine environment

Abstract

The authors performed a seasonal and diel study on viral distribution in Tampa Bay, Florida, and detected the abundance of lysogens and bacteriocinogens amongst marine bacterial isolates from diverse marine environments. The viral population had a strong seasonal pattern with the highest concentrations (2.0±0.8×107) in summer and lowest (4.8±1.4×106) in winter. Viral abundance was negatively correlated with salinity and positively correlated with chl a concentration. Viral abundance did not vary on a diel rhythm, but rather peaked after a maximum in bacterial abundance and chl a. An estimation of the percentage of the bacterial standing stock lysed by viruses ranged from 3.0-53.3% per day. -from Authors