Ecology of aquatic viruses in the Arctic

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The average global temperature has steadily risen over the past 100 years, with some of the greatest increases occurring in the Arctic. This is of particular concern because it has resulted in a substantial reduction in the amount and quality of ice in the region. The consequences of this are dramatic, affecting everything from sea level and oceanic circulation to international trade and the customs of aboriginal peoples. A critical aspect to predicting the breadth and magnitude of the impact of climate change in the Arctic is elucidating how the organisms endemic to this region are being affected. As in the majority of ecosystems on Earth, the most abundant and diverse groups of biological entities in the Arctic are the protists, prokaryotes and viruses that comprise the microbial community. Microbes play a critical role in the cycling of nutrients and energy, and therefore understanding the dynamics and interactions of this group is vital to understanding the ecology of the Arctic ecosystem as a whole. The viruses are an important, but remarkably understudied, component of the Arctic ecosystem. Viruses influence the community dynamics and evolution of their microbial hosts, and ultimately the productivity of the entire biota. The overarching objective of this research is to characterize the diversity and dynamics of viruses that infect microbes and determine how microbial ecology is affected by the rapid and evolving changes in the Arctic environment. Towards this end, I propose to work in the lakes and coastal marine environment of the Canadian High Arctic, a region that has experienced a dramatic loss of ice cover in the past decades. The short-term objectives of this research are to isolate viruses that infect microbial hosts of ecological importance and characterize the virus community using molecular methods over space and time. This study will provide a comprehensive assessment of the dynamics of a seriously understudied group of biological entities that are likely to have a significant influence on the structure and function of the Arctic food web. These data will greatly expand the known range of genomic diversity among viruses, and will provide new insights into their evolution, ecology, and biology in a region of global significance. This project will also support the training and education of students and scientists, outreach activities with northern communities, and our findings will be disseminated as widely as possible through publications, conferences, public forums and the media.