Date |
Sep 26, 2016 |
Speaker |
Ruth-Anne Sandaa, Bergen University
|
Title |
Marine viruses: small but important
|
Abstract |
Viruses are the most numerous and diverse biological entities in the
oceans and they are important for biochemical cycling and structuring
of microbial communities. Not only do viral infection and lysis
influence the structure of prokaryote and eukaryote communities, it
also control the partitioning of nutrient fluxes "up" the food
chain via predation and "down" the food chain to the pool of
dissolved organic material (DOM). Viruses also have the ability to
influence the life history and evolution of the host community by
acting as major conduits of genetic exchange. I will in this talk
discuss viral diversity in the marine environment, and link viral
activity to its function on both the prokaryotic and eukaryotic
(phytoplankton) host communities. I will also discuss how abundance
and activity of viruses and their heterotrophic prokaryotic hosts may
be linked to trophic cascades initiated in the predator food chain in
the marine microbial food web by combining results from mesoent with
mathematical modelling.
|
|