Microbes play important roles in ecosystems, and these roles are changing with global warming.
The Science
Microbes play important roles in ecosystems, and these roles are changing with global warming. Scientists also now know that most types of microbes are infected by viruses, but they know relatively little about how these viral infections could change how microbes react to warming. In this study, scientists describe many different ways that increasing temperatures could affect viruses and their microbial hosts. These changes could ultimately affect the responses of whole ecosystems to warming. The work exposes several important gaps in researchers’ current knowledge about the connections between viruses, warming, and ecosystem functioning. Filling these gaps is crucial for understanding and predicting the effects of climate change on ecosystems.
The Impact
This study creates a roadmap for understanding the many different ways that viruses could modify the effects of warming on communities of microbes. Viruses likely have strong effects on processes with microbes and the ways ecosystems function. Incorporating these previously ignored effects into ecosystem models will help scientists improve their predictions of how ecosystems could respond to climate change.
Read more at DOE/US Department of Energy
Image: Microorganisms affect the flow of energy and matter within ecosystems, but they are also subject to infection by viruses. Scientists do not fully understand how viral infections will alter ecosystem functioning in a rapidly warming world. (Image courtesy of Wieczynski, D.J., et al., Viral infections likely mediate microbial controls on ecosystem responses to global warming. FEMS Microbiology Ecology, 99, 3 (2023))
