Viral abundance, production, decay rates and life strategies (lysogeny versus lysis) in Lake Bourget (France)

We have investigated the ecology of viruses in Lake Bourget (France) from January to August 2008. Data were analysed for viral and bacterial abundance and production, viral decay, frequency of lysogenic cells, the contribution of bacteriophages to prokaryotic mortality and their potential influence on nutrient dynamics. Analyses and experiments were conducted on samples from the epilimnion (2 m) and the hypolimnion (50 m), taken at the reference site of the lake. The abundance of virus‐like particles (VLP) varied from 3.4 × 10⁷ to 8.2 × 10⁷ VLP ml^?1; with the highest numbers and virus‐to‐bacterium ratio (VBR = 69) recorded in winter. Viral production varied from 3.2 × 10⁴ VLP ml^?1 h^?1 (July) to 2 × 10⁶ VLP ml^?1 h^?1 (February and April), and production was lower in the hypolimnion. Viral decay rate reached 0.12–0.15 day^?1, and this parameter varied greatly with sampling date and methodology (i.e. KCN versus filtration). Using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis, viral lysis was responsible for 0% (January) to 71% (February) of bacterial mortality, while viral lysis varied between 0% (April) and 53% (January) per day when using a modified dilution approach. Calculated from viral production and burst size, the virus‐induced bacterial mortality varied between 0% (January) and 68% (August). A weak relationship was found between the two first methods (TEM versus dilution approach). Interestingly, flow cytometry analysis performed on the dilution experiment samples revealed that the viral impact was mostly on high DNA content bacterial cells whereas grazing, varying between 8.3% (June) and 75.4% (April), was reflected in both HDNA and LDNA cells equally. The lysogenic fraction varied between 0% (spring/summer) and 62% (winter) of total bacterial abundance, and increased slightly with increasing amounts of mitomycin C added. High percentages of lysogenic cells were recorded when bacterial abundance and activity were the lowest. The calculated release of carbon and phosphorus from viral lysis reached up to 56.5 µgC l^?1 day^?1 (assuming 20 fgC cell^?1) and 1.4 µgP l^?1 day^?1 (assuming 0.5 fgP cell^?1), respectively, which may represent a significant fraction of bacterioplankton nutrient demand. This study provides new evidence of the quantitative and functional importance of the virioplankton in the functioning of microbial food webs in peri‐alpine lakes. It also highlights methodologically dependent results.