Occurrence and metabolic activity of organisms under the ross ice shelf, antarctica, at station j9. uri icon

abstract

  • Seawater samples below the Ross Ice Shelf were collected through an access hole at J9, approximately 400 kilometers from the Ross Sea, Antarctica. The 237-meter water column had sparse populations of bacteria (8.7 x 10(6) to 1.2 x 10(7) per liter), microplankters (10(2) to 10(3) per cubic meter), and zooplankters (10 to 20 per cubic meter) at the depths studied. Microbial biomass estimates from cellular adenosine 5'-triphosphate measurements were very low (10 to 150 nanograms of carbon per liter), comparable with values for the abyssal ocean. Microbial populations assimilated tritiated D-glucose, thymidine, uridine, and adenosine triphosphate at extremely low rates, comparable with deep-sea heterotrophic populations. Sediment samples had 10(7) to 10(8) bacteria per gram (dry weight), which were metabolically active as shown by respiration of uniformly labeled D-[(14)C]glucose. From this study it cannot be determined whether these organisms in the water column and sediments constitute a functioning food web.

published proceedings

  • Science

altmetric score

  • 3

author list (cited authors)

  • Azam, F., Beers, J. R., Campbell, L., Carlucci, A. F., Holm-Hansen, O., Reid, F. M., & Karl, D. M

citation count

  • 45

complete list of authors

  • Azam, F||Beers, JR||Campbell, L||Carlucci, AF||Holm-Hansen, O||Reid, FM||Karl, DM

publication date

  • February 1979