Linking multi-organism-environment interactions across lab and field scales to estimate viral contributions to soil C cycling
EMSL Project ID
60855
Abstract
Interactions between soil viruses and their microbial hosts can significantly impact microbial population dynamics, metabolism, and evolution, with cascading effects on soil carbon (C) transformations. Yet, empirical data about the factors that govern such interactions in soil are sparse at best, limiting our ability to estimate when and how much viral activity contributes to soil C cycling. In particular, the drivers and patterns of viral community composition remain poorly understood, even though these dynamics determine virus-host interactions in the environment. Likewise, the proportion of microbial mortality attributable to viral mortality, and how this varies with key environmental factors such as moisture, is virtually unknown for soils. To address these knowledge gaps, we propose complementary field and laboratory-based experiments to generate the vital reference data necessary to begin to estimate when and how much viruses contribute to soil C cycling. In collaboration with EMSL and JGI, we will generate some of the first quantitative data about rates of viral production, viral contributions to C cycling via host lysis, shifts in soil C pools as a result of viral predation, seasonal shifts in viral community composition, and the degree to which natural soil viral communities vary across time. This ambitious cross-scale study is an extension of PNNL’s Soil Microbiome SFA research program and will represent one of the most highly resolved temporal investigations of viral communities in soil to date, potentially uncovering previously unknown influences on virus-host interactions in the environment. Another key facet of this work is the focus on characterizing virus-mediated changes in the composition of extractable soil C pools and integrating between laboratory and field-scales to identify exometabolite ‘hallmarks’ of viral infection. Data generated from this cross-scale approach are integral to enabling ecosystem-scale models that account for virus-mediated C fluxes, akin to those developed for marine systems and which form the foundation to eventually predict when viral activity could enhance C storage in soils.
Project Details
Project type
FICUS Research
Start Date
2023-10-01
End Date
N/A
Status
Active
Released Data Link
Team
Principal Investigator
Co-Investigator(s)
Team Members