| Between January 1992 and March 1995, the research project Kerfix undertook the first regular non-coastal multiyear acquisition of parameters related to the carbon cycle in the Southern Ocean at a time series station located at 50degrees40'S-68degrees25'E, 110 km southwest of the Kerguelen Islands. I present here a general overview of the bacteriological data collected during this survey. Bacterioplankton biomass at Kerfix station was always significantly lower than in the direct vicinity of the Kerguelen Islands. Bacterial abundance decreased from surface to deepest layers (from 10(6) cells ml(-1) in surface layer to 5.0 x 10(4) cells ml(-1) at 1500 m). In contrast, mean cell volume (0.1 mum(3)) and proportion of free-living bacteria (80%) were relatively... |
