Abundance of bacteria and virus during the METEOR cruise M87/1

In temperate, subpolar and polar marine systems, the classical perception that bacteria are carbon limited by end of winter and respond in activity and abundance to the production of new carbon during the diatom spring bloom and post bloom. Contrary to this view, we here document an strong increase in bacterial abundance and activity (latter measured by increasing high nuclei acid (HNA) to low nuclei acid (LNA) bacteria ratio) during the winter-spring transition, where phytoplankton smaller than 10 µm dominate. Further DNA-virus were enumerated and revealed the virus to bacteria ratio (VBR) to be decreasing during winter-spring transition, indicating that the virus did not increase in number accordingly to bacteria. During repeated visits to stations in the deep Icelandic and the Norwegian Basins and the shallow Shetland Shelf (26 March to 29 April 2012), we investigated the abundance of bacteria and the succession of HNA:LNA bacteria and VBR. Water samples were collected from CTD rosette .10 L Niskin bottles and fixed in glutaraldehyde (final conc. 5%), flash frozen in liquid Nitrogen and stored at -80°C until analysis.

Estimation of cooling of lavas from Serocki volcano

A dynamic crystallization study was undertaken to provide a framework for linking the textural variations observed in the Hole 648B lavas with the size and morphology of cooling units inferred from drilling and submersible observation. The textures produced in cooling rate experiments carried out using a Serocki lava (ALV-1690-20) are comparable to the groundmass textural characteristics of lavas from Serocki volcano. The results of the dynamic crystallization study provide a quantitative link between texture, cooling rate, and eruption temperature. The maximum half-width of cooling units estimated from textural characteristics is on the order of 3 m, a value consistent with constraints from drilling and submersible observation. Textural characteristics indicate that the temperature from which cooling began was slightly above the liquidus. The relation between cooling rate and texture are also tested on a drill core sample of basalt of similar composition from a 9-m-thick flow in DSDP Hole 396B.