Biological evolution of Antarctic lakes

Bacterial concentrations were low, with a maximum of 7.60 x 107 per litre, as were the concentrations of heterotrophic nanoflagellates that exploit them. Primary production ranged between 19.7 - 25.49 micro grams C per litre day-1 and bacterial production from 0.32 - 1.15 micro grams C per litre day-1. In common with other continental Antarctic lakes, the system was dominated by a microbial plankton.

However, a dwarf variety of the calanoid copepod, Boeckella poppei, occurred below 25m at concentrations of 3-5 per litre. The data suggest that primary production and bacterial production were not limited by nutrient availability, but by other factors e.g. in the case of bacterial production by organic carbon concentrations and primary production by low temperatures. The fields in this dataset are: Evolution Biological lake salinity depth m ciliates per litre cysts boeckella bacteria glucose glycine particulate organic carbon (POC) total organic carbon (TOC) DiAskenasia 15/2/00 sloved organic carbon (DOC) Monodinium Askenasia Strombidium Heliozoa scuticociliates Holophyra PNAN = Phototrophic nanoflagellates HNAN= heterotrophic nanoflagellates