| Comments |
P.525 right column: "The Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study (BATS) has collected oceanographic data in the Sargasso Sea, which is a well-studied open-ocean environment in the Atlantic Ocean, for 25 years. Assuming that DOP makes up 80% of the total dissolved phosphorus at BATS (primary source 43), then 95% of DOP measurements from 2000–2009 range from 25 nM to 109 nM, with an average of 58 ± 22 nM (primary source 50). Given decadal measurements (in 2000 and 2009) of seasonally varying virus abundances at BATS [primary source 51], [investigators] predict that the fraction of Sargasso Sea DOP that is partitioned in viruses is in the range of 0.10% to 8.0% (Table 2). Similarly, the Hawaii Ocean Time series (HOT) programme includes more than 25 years of oceanographic data, which has been collected within the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, including a deep-water site (Station ALOHA) near to the island of Oahu, Hawaii. The data that were collected at Station ALOHA include measurements of DOP, such that 95% of the DOP measurements that were made between 1988 and 2012 range from 150 nM to 320 nM, with an average of 224 ± 46 nM (primary source 52). When these DOP ranges (and in one case, concurrent measurements of DOP) are compared with two marine virus surveys that were conducted at this site [primary sources 53, 54], [they] predict that the fractional DOP that is bound in virus populations at HOT ranges between 0.15% and 1.5%. Hence, at both the BATS and HOT sites, [they] predict that viruses do not generally make up a significant fraction of the DOP pool, although they can potentially exceed 5% of the total DOP pool at BATS (Table 2)." See abbreviations and notes beneath table |