A quarter teaspoon of seawater contains on the order of a million cells and ten million viruses. Despite their microscopic size and relative isolation, marine microbes catalyze chemical reactions that are critical for maintaining Earth’s habitability. Virus infections of marine microbes can transform the fate of individual cells and also cascade up to influence population dynamics, community diversity, and even the recycling and export of carbon and other essential nutrients. We are working on several projects to understand how virus-microbe interactions shape the biogeochemical cycles of one of the largest habitats on Earth.

• Assessing top-down control of marine microbes by viruses
• Linking abiotic factors to virus-microbe dynamics in a changing climate
• Exploring the influence of non-lytic interactions on virus-microbe dynamics

Recent Publications

• Coexistence of Photosynthetic Marine Microorganisms, Viruses and Grazers: Towards Integration in Ocean Ecosystem Models
• Sub-daily virus sampling at the Bermuda Atlantic Time Series reveals diel and depth-structured population dynamics without community-level shifts
• Seasonal enhancement of the viral shunt catalyzes a subsurface oxygen maximum in the Sargasso Sea

Team members