A positive correlation is thought to depend directly on virus production (Hara et al. 1996). In the case of the Curonian Lagoon, it is difficult to infer virus impact on the bacterial community, since the morphologies of cyanophages and other bacteriophages attributed to Myoviridae are similar ( Safferman et al. 1983) and cannot be distinguished solely on the basis of electron micrographs. On the other hand, VBR depends on infection rates and virus burst sizes. The latter variable is known to depend on virus capsid size ( Weinbauer & Peduzzi 1994). Thus, the dominance of a larger size fraction of viruses could result in a decrease of VBR. Although

we cannot predict many important virus-host interactions, such as the role of phages in the genomic diversity of Alectinib hosts or the rate of gene transfer, based only on morphology or size distribution, the different

patterns of all three parameters reflecting virioplankton, i.e. size, shape and abundance, provided a more accurate picture of the spatial distribution of phage-like particles in the Curonian Lagoon than could have been revealed from a single variable. Finally, the morphology and size analysis of phagelike particles may be useful to explain the variation of such parameters as virus burst size (e.g. larger viruses tend to have a smaller burst size) or at least serve as a good basis for the further planning of research and BI 6727 in vitro experiments. The authors would also like to express their appreciation to the staff of the Department of Immunology and Cell Biology (Institute of Biotechnology, Vilnius) for their valuable support with microscopic techniques. Early phases of the research were considerably enhanced by the participation of Kristina Slavuckyte, whose contribution is greatly acknowledged. We thank Viaceslav Jurkin (Klaipeda University, Coastal Research and Planning Institute) for his help with the preparation of Figure 1. Special thanks go to the anonymous reviewers, whose comments and suggestions resulted in a significantly improved

manuscript. “
“Coastal upwelling is an important marine process that has been studied worldwide because of its significant impacts on biogeochemical cycles, primary productivity and fisheries (Prego et al. 2007, Woodson et al. 2007). The process can re-fertilize the surface water with high levels of nutrient by AMP deaminase uplifting nutrient-rich subsurface water and thus increase the growth of marine phytoplankton in the surface layer (Shen & Shi 2006, Prego et al. 2007). There are several famous coastal upwelling systems in the world: the Benguela Current (Monteiro & Largier 1999), the California Current (di Lorenzo 2003), the Peru-Chile Current (Nixon & Thomas 2001, Mohtadi et al. 2005) and the Canary Current (Pelegrí et al. 2005). These upwelling systems are produced by the interaction between favourable winds and the topography (Woodson et al. 2007), often involving offshore Ekman transport or surface currents.