How can ocean viruses influence the global carbon cycle? This is what a recent study published in Science Advances hopes to address as a team of researchers from Rutgers University and Bar-Ilan University in Israel investigated the role of DNA and RNA viruses on global carbon recycling. This study has the potential to help researchers better understand the processes responsible for influencing the global carbon cycle and the steps that can be taken to mitigate them.
For the study, the researchers examined how ocean viruses impact phytoplankton, the latter of which is responsible for consuming carbon dioxide and producing oxygen. When phytoplankton gets killed by ocean viruses, it produces dissolved organic matter (DOM), which assists in carbon recycling after being consumed by ocean bacteria. In the end, the researchers found that DNA and RNA viruses have different outcomes, with DNA viruses enabling bacterial growth from DOM while RNA viruses have the complete opposite impact by mitigating carbon recycling by the bacteria.
“Viruses don’t just kill phytoplankton; they fundamentally alter the way carbon moves through the ocean,” said Dr. Chana Kranzler, who is a Senior Lecturer from the Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences at Bar-Ilan University and lead author of the study. “We are learning that distinct types of viral infections can impact surrounding microbial communities in different ways, potentially reshaping how carbon is recycled and the amount of carbon that is ultimately sequestered in the deep ocean.”
The researchers note this is only the beginning of understanding the role of DNA and RNA viruses in regulating the global climate, especially since phytoplankton plays an important role in carbon sequestration, as noted above.
What new connections between ocean viruses and the global carbon cycle will researchers make in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!
Sources: Science Advances, EurekAlert!