Roles and genetic diversity of viral communities in marine ecosystems

越来越清楚的是，病毒是全球生物地球化学循环的主要驱动因素，代表着地球上最大的遗传多样性。拟议的研究直接考察了病毒的空间变异性和遗传多样性，它们对浮游植物和细菌死亡的影响，以及随之而来的病毒裂解对海洋生物地球化学过程的作用。我们将继续探索感染浮游动物的病毒的多样性和丰富性，浮游动物是水生食物网的关键环节。这些研究将增强我们对病毒分布和多样性、病毒-宿主相互作用以及病毒介导的营养再生的理解。这方面的知识可以合成更准确的病毒在海洋生态系统中作用的模型，进而影响海洋管理问题，如渔业生产力的估计、有害藻华的补救和水生生态系统健康的评估。

It has become increasingly clear that viruses are major drivers of global biogeochemical cycles and represent the greatest genetic diversity on Earth. The proposed research directly examines the spatial variability and genetic diversity of viruses, their effect on the mortality of phytoplankton and bacteria, and the consequent role of viral lysis on biogeochemical processes in the ocean. We will continue to explore the diversity and abundance of viruses that infect zooplankton, a critical link in aquatic foodwebs. These investigations will enhance our understanding of viral distribution and diversity, virus-host interactions, and viral mediated nutrient regeneration. This knowledge can result in the synthesis of more accurate models of the role of viruses within marine ecosystems, which in turn can affect marine management issues such as estimation of fisheries productivity, remediation of harmful algal blooms, and assessment of aquatic ecosystem health.