Viruses, bacteria, and heterotrophic nanoflagellates in Laptev Sea plankton

The paper considers the concentrations and functional characteristics of viruses, bacteria, and heterotrophic nanoflagellates determined for the first time in the Laptev Sea in August-September, 2014. The abundance of bacteria, viruses, and heterotrophic nanoflagellates varied from 110.1 × 103 to 828.4 × 103 cells/mL, from 384.2 × 103 to 2932.8 × 103 particles/mL, and from 108 to 651 cells/mL, respectively. The daily bacterioplankton production varied from 4.2 × 103 to 381.7 × 103 cells/mL, with an average of 117.6 × 103 cells/mL. Electron transmission microscopy has for the first time shown that the frequency of visibly infected bacterial cells varied from 0.2 to 2.0% (0.8% on average) of NB. The average virus-induced mortality of bacteria was 6.3% of bacterioplankton production, with variations ranging from 1.4 to 16.9%. Grazing on bacteria by heterotrophic nanoflagellates contributed more to bacteria mortality than virus-induced bacterial lysis. By grazing on bacteria, heterotrophic nanoflagellates consumed large quantities of viruses located on the surface and inside bacterial cells.