Data from ice 3590 meters below Vostok Station indicate that the ice was accreted from liquid water associated with Lake Vostok. Microbes were observed at concentrations ranging from 2.8 x 10(3) to 3.6 x 10(4) cells per milliliter; no biological incorporation of selected organic substrates or bicarbonate was detected. Bacterial 16S ribosomal DNA genes revealed low diversity in the gene population. The phylotypes were closely related to extant members of the alpha- and beta-Proteobacteria and the Actinomycetes. Extrapolation of the data from accretion ice to Lake Vostok implies that Lake Vostok may support a microbial population, despite more than 10(6) years of isolation from the atmosphere.

Research of the microbial ecology of McMurdo Dry Valley lakes has concentrated primarily on phototrophs; relatively little is known about the heterotrophic bacterioplankton. Bacteria represent a substantial proportion of water column biomass in these lakes, comprising 30 to 60% of total microplankton biomass. Bacterial production and cell numbers were measured 3 to 5 times, within four Antarctic seasons (October to January), in Lakes Fryxell, Hoare, and Bonney. The winter-spring transition (September to October) was included during one year. Lake Fryxell was the most productive, but variable, lake, followed by Lakes Bonney and Hoare. Bacterial production ranged from 0 to 0.009 µg C ml-1 d-1; bacterial populations ranged from 3.2 x 10(4) to 4.4 x 10(7) cells ml-1. Bacterial production was always greatest just below the ice cover at the beginning of the season. A second maximum developed just above the chemocline of all the lakes, as the season progressed. Total bacterioplankton biomass in the lakes decreased as much as 88% between successive sampling dates in the summer, as evidenced by areal integration of bacterial populations; the largest decreases in biomass typically occurred in mid-December. A forward difference model of bacterial loss in the trophogenic zone and the entire water column of these lakes showed that loss rates in the summer reached 6.3 x 10(14) cells m-2 d-1 and 4.16 x 10(12) cells m-2 d-1, respectively. These results imply that bacteria may be a source of carbon to higher trophic levels in these lakes, through grazing.

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The proximal substrate source of planktonic bacteria is dissolved organic carbon (DOC), and the combined sources of DOC (bulk, phytoplankton production, and advected) set an upper limit on how much C is available for bacterial respiration (BR). We compared measurements of bacterial production (BP) and estimates of BR to measurements of what we assumed to be the major DOC inputs for three permanently iceߚcovered lakes in Antarctica: Lakes Fryxell, Hoare, and Bonney. These measured inputs, which included phytoplankton extracellular release (ECR), stream input, and upward diffusion of DOC across the chemocline, sediments, and benthic microbial mats, were three to eight times smaller than planktonic BR, suggesting that a major source of bacterial C was unaccounted for. Despite overestimating DOC and doubling bacterial growth efficiency (BGE), BR in the lakes was 1.25ߚ2 times greater than our estimate of DOC supply. We hypothesize that a major source of organic C for planktonic bacteria in these lakes comes from drawdown of bulk DOC and/or decomposition of particulate material.