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    Around-n-Over

    Question - "What does having a dream mean to you?"
    Answer - "A dream is a goal glimmering in the distance; it is an inner calling which, when accomplished,
    serves as the rite of passage into wisdom." Erden Eruç - Sep 17, 2004
     

    Image: Tiny shrimplike creatures provide food for the fish. Tiny shrimplike creatures provide food for the fish.
    Image: I wonder how each of these species find a suitable mate in the vast ocean to multiply. I wonder how each of these species find a suitable mate in the vast ocean to multiply.

    Life exists in smaller forms...
    December 16, 2007 - Day 160    9.0158N,163.5071W
    Until now, I talked about birds and fish that I could see and photograph. We know that other life forms exist which are the lower links in the food chain.

    Marine viruses are one such group that I cannot see, which may well have infected me also, as they do all life forms out here. There was recently an excellent review article in Nature written by Dr. Curtis Suttle at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. My friend Norman Watts brought it to my attention, then sought a review of the below summary of facts from Dr. Suttle. I thank them both.

    What we call viruses are very very tiny creatures, just a few nanometers (10^-9 meters) across. One nanometer is one millionth of a millimeter, which itself is one thousanth of a meter. If we want to compare a marine virus to an E. Coli bacterium (~2x10^-6 m or 0.002 mm long, and ~ 0.8x10^-6 m diameter), we can see that the bacterium is larger by an order of a thousand.

    There are thousands of types of these marine viruses, and some can be large, up to about 200-400 nanometers long. These viruses often have a "head" where the DNA is, and a "tail." Others look like threads. They infect organisms, and in the ocean they infect everything from bacteria up to whales. Viruses are not "alive" except when they are in a living organism.

    Marine viruses are by far the most abundant "life form" in the oceans. The research suggests there are ~10^30 viruses in the ocean. That's a very large number. One billion is 10^9; then, 10^30 is one thousand-billion-billion-billions. Or it is a 1 followed by 30 zeros before reaching the decimal point!

    As these viruses go about their business, they create ~10^23 viral infection events per second in the ocean. It is thought that viruses kill about 20% of the microbial biomass in the oceans each day. The virus distribution is on average ~10^7 (or 10 million) viruses per milliliter; there are more inshore and fewer offshore.

    Microorganisms such as bacteria constitute about 90% of the biomass in the ocean; 95% if viruses are included. For comparison, the 5% virus biomass would be a mass equivalent to that of about 75 million blue whales.

    Marine viruses are an important element of life in the oceans where a lot of protein and 50% of the world's oxygen are produced. Most of the genetic diversity in the oceans by far consists of viruses. These tiny creatures are a major driver behind biochemical cycles in the ocean and we still know very little about the numbers of viruses in the ocean sediments.

    All of the above facts have only come to light in the last 20 years or so, according to Dr. Suttle. Perhaps further research on the lifecycles of these marine viruses, will provide us another link in understanding the dynamics of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere which are of global concern today.

    Erden.

    Previous Dispatches
    image

    Game plan...    December 14, 2007 - Day 158
    If I can now follow the course on my chartplotter to Mooloolaba, with its long stretches of great circle lines, I have another 4,200nm to go. I will have go to where the counter current is weakest, a

    image

    Beyond 5,000 nautical miles...    December 10, 2007 - Day 154
    Including all the tangled yarn of a course that I followed in late November, the total distance my boat has traced on the Pacific Ocean is now over 5,000nm. That's a lot of mileage when compared

    image

    It was a busy weekend (Part 3)    December 7, 2007 - Day 151
    Every 45 minutes or so, the Masked Booby would stop the grooming, focus intensely looking forward, almost as if thinking. Then its tail would rise up, its chest would come down, and a substantial squ

    Later dispatches - Previous dispatches


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