What are the roles of the Antarctic marine biota in global biogeochemical cycles?
Data from a new French-Australian collaboration involving investiation on the French Vessel l’Astrolabe, showed carbon dioxide uptake in Southern Ocean correlated dramatically with phytoplankton stocks. A photographically illustrated guide to the over 550 species of Antarctic Marine Protists (phytoplankton and protozoa) has been published. This book brings together, for the first time, those single celled organisms that account for over 90% of the biomass of life in the sea, form the base of the marine food web and play a key role on the exchange of carbon dioxide between atmosphere and ocean. In the last ten years it has become evident that viruses are common in the sea and lakes, occurring in concentrations of one to tens of millions per millilitre. They infect bacteria and phytoplankton and cause cells to die. In so doing they short circuit the cycling of carbon one of the most important chemical cycles in nature, thereby preventing bacteria and phytoplankton being exploited as food
