Variations of picoplankton groups were investigated over a one-month period in Daya Bay and Sanya Bay,in the northern South China Sea.The two coastal regions exhibited different variation patterns in physicochemical parameters.Moreover,the diel variations of picoplankton groups were different between the two bays.The abundance of the picoplankton in Sanya Bay displayed a pronounced diel variation,while it was not significant in Daya Bay.In addition,some similar patterns of picoplankton abundance were discovered.In the two bays,virioplankton exhibited the smallest fluctuation range,whereas picocyanobacteria fluctuated most markedly.The fluctuation range of picoplankton groups was larger in spring tide than in neap tide,especially in Sanya Bay.Random forest model analysis demonstrated that the variation of picoplankton groups was attributed to physical and chemical factors in Sanya Bay and Daya Bay,respectively.Therefore,our findings suggest that virioplankton abundance can persist more stably in response to changing environmental conditions compared to bacterioplankton and picophytoplankton.
We examined changes in morphological and genomic diversities of viruses by means of transmission electronic microscopy and pulsed field gel electrophoresis （PFGE） over a nine-month period （April-December 2005） at four different depths in the oligomesotrophic Lac Pavin. We found that the majority of viruses in this lake belonged to the family of Siphouiridae or were untailed, with capsid sizes ranging from 30 to 60 nm, and exhibited genome sizes ranging from 15 to 45 kb. On average, 12 different genotypes dominated each of the PFGE fingerprints. The highest genomic viral richness was recorded in summer （mean = 14 bands per PFGE fingerprint） and in the epilimnion （mean = 13 bands per PFGE fingerprint）. Among the physico-chemical and biological variables considered, the availability of the hosts appeared to be the main factor regulating the variations in the viral diversity.
Jonathan ColombetAgnès RobinTélesphore Sime-Ngando
