This year marks the 20th anniversary of the first reports of high viral abundance within marine ecosystems and the beginning of a renaissance in our appreciation of the importance of viruses to the ecology, population biology, and evolution of their microbial hosts. Today, mounting evidence from field ecology to bacterial comparative genomics and metagenomics of viral assemblages support the idea viral infection is
probably a universal phenomena for all microbial life.

 

The broader implications of this fact are that viruses influence global-scale biogeochemical cycles and carry a diverse repository of genes which are capable of altering the physiological features of host cells. This meeting will provide an overview of the current research avenues within viral ecology and implications for our understanding of the ecology of microorganisms in the sea. Despite our focus on marine ecosystems, the SCOR working group welcomes all scientists interested in the influence of viral activities on ecosystem processes and microbial communities.

 

Click here for the full announcement.