Elements of a theory for the mechanisms controlling abundance, diversity, and biogeochemical role of lytic bacterial viruses in aquatic systems

摘要

Mechanisms controlling virus abundance and partitioning of loss of bacterial production between viral lysis and protozoan predation are discussed within the framework of an idealized Lotka-Volterra-type model. This combines nonselective protozoan predation with host - selective viral analysis of bacteria. The analysis leads to a reciprocal rela - tionship between bacterial diversity and viruses, in which coexistence of competing bacterial species is ensured by the presence of viruses that "kill the winner," whereas the differences in substrate affinity between the coexisting bacterial species determine viral abundance.