If you didn’t think the ocean could get anymore weird, wonderful and kinda freaky...have
I got news for you.
There are viruses in it.
A lot more than we previously thought.
A new study reveals there are almost 200,000 distinct viral populations in the ocean.
A liter of sea water contains anywhere between 1-10 billion virus particles—most of which
we don’t know anything about!
Our understanding of these elusive microbial communities has just started to come into focus
in the last few decades, and this new research is a huge step toward better understanding of
our oceans.
Before this study, the highest number we had for ocean viral populations was about 15,000...but
this new study pretty much blows that already impressive number out of the water.
From 2009 to 2013, researchers analyzed samples from about 80 different sites all over the
world, from sunny surfaces to thousands of meters down into the depths.
They found over 180,000 additional unique viral populations, bringing the total to almost
200,000.
And the diversity of these new populations is seriously stunning!
Ok, ok but why do we care?
We may mostly think of viruses in terms of human disease.
They’re the cause of everything from the common cold to HIV.
But viruses can infect all biological organisms, perhaps most notably...bacteria.
Viruses that kill bacteria are called bacteriophages, or phages for short.
Phage therapy is being explored as a solution to antibiotic resistance and environmentally-borne
pathogens. So understanding how viruses interact with bacteria is important to human health,
‘cause they can actually be our friends in some situations.
But viruses also play essential roles outside of our bodies.
They kill marine microbes, too, and they kill SO MANY that they actually release a really
significant amount of carbon back into the environment, playing a critical role in the
food chain, all the way down to the very bottom.
On the other hand, viruses also steal energy from oceanic bacteria and therefore lessen
the amount of carbon dioxide those bacteria can take out of the atmosphere, which is obviously
not ideal, so it’s a delicate balance, and a complex relationship.
Studying these new viruses could give us more insight into how the oceans cycle organic
matter…which is really important.
Oceans are thought to be our biggest carbon sink—absorbing between 30-50% of human-made
carbon emissions.
Exploring these new viruses means that we could potentially manipulate viral populations
to our advantage.
Maybe we could increase the viral community’s ability to move carbon dioxide from the shallow,
surface parts of the ocean into the deep ocean, sequestering it into biomatter so it doesn’t
clog up our atmosphere or acidify the oceans.
The new data suggests five distinct groups of viral populations distinguished by their
unique adaptations to both location and depth.
Plus, something really surprising!
With most organisms, diversity is clustered around the equator.
But the researchers in this study found that about 40% of the new viral populations are
in the Arctic Ocean—a part of our oceans that’s particularly under threat from
changing climate.
And finally, viruses are still very mysterious.
There’s lots we don’t understand about them and the way they work, like...where did
they come from?
We’re not even really sure if viruses are technically alive.
Viruses exhibit some qualities of ‘aliveness’, but many are unable to survive long without
a host, and all need a host to replicate
soooo... neyhhh.
Some scientists settle for calling viruses ‘biotic agents, or something that acts on
life’—and they are the smallest and most abundant biotic agents in the world.
And even though this particular project uncovered over 180,000 viral populations that are new
to us, there are still regions of the ocean that need to be sampled further, and there
are many more probably waiting to be discovered.
This vast, untapped diversity that we’re just starting to dive into could help us gain
better understanding of what exactly a virus is, how they work, and how we could use them to
our advantage.
If you want more on oceanic discoveries, check out this video here.
If you have any other microbial news you want us to cover, let us know down in
the comments, and make sure you subscribe to Seeker for all you viral content.
Thanks for watching, and we’ll see you next time.