Tf. Thingstad, Elements of a theory for the mechanisms controlling abundance, diversity, and biogeochemical role of lytic bacterial viruses in aquatic systems, LIMN OCEAN, 45(6), 2000, pp. 1320-1328
Mechanisms controlling virus abundance and partitioning of loss of bacteria
l production between viral lysis and protozoan predation are discussed with
in the framework of an idealized Lotka-Volterra-type model. This combines n
onselective protozoan predation with host-selective viral lysis of bacteria
. The analysis leads to a reciprocal relationship between bacterial diversi
ty and viruses, in which coexistence of competing bacterial species is ensu
red by the presence of viruses that "kill the winner," whereas the differen
ces in substrate affinity between the coexisting bacterial species determin
e viral abundance. The ability of the model to reproduce published observat
ions, such as an approximate 1:10 ratio between bacterial and viral abundan
ce, and the ability of viral lysis to account for 10-50% of bacterial loss
are discussed.