Death and life beneath the sea floor

摘要

Viruses that infect microbes in deep-sea sediments may be a key driver in the worlds largest ecosystem and integral to the global carbon cycle, data reveal. Lytic viruses, which cause infected cells to burst, kill about 80% of the single-celled organisms in the sediment and sub-surface ocean layers, researchers calculate, thereby releasing large amounts of dissolved carbon into the deep seas'. Every year this 'viral shunt' releases up to 630 million tonnes of the carbon sequestered by particles sinking into these deep-sea benthic zones, suggesting that viruses should be included in ocean carbon-management models.