The project

Why viruses matter for the ocean

Marine phytoplankton are responsible for about 50% of global oxygen production and sequester vast amounts of anthropogenic CO2. Viral infection kills host cells (viral lysis) and so redirects the flow of energy and elements through the ecosystem, with far-reaching consequences for ocean structure and functioning.

Several things are still poorly known:

  • How fast viruses kill different phytoplankton groups (lysis rates).
  • How infection changes the elemental composition (stoichiometry) and traits of the host.
  • How environmental stressors linked to climate change alter virus–host interactions.
  • How virus and host traits are distributed geographically.

Global ecosystem and biogeochemical models usually leave virus–host dynamics out, include them only implicitly, or treat all phytoplankton groups alike.

Five linked objectives

  1. Single host–virus systems. Detailed trait characterisation, elemental stoichiometry and gene expression for the major phytoplankton groups, used to evaluate a mechanistic trait-based model.
  2. Multi-host laboratory systems. How viral infection affects competition, particularly under nutrient limitation and temperature shifts.
  3. Semi-natural communities. Manipulated communities to study effects on host gene expression and trait distribution under the same stressors.
  4. Atlantic fieldwork. Phytoplankton and virus biogeography from the tropics to sub-polar waters, with population-specific viral lysis rates and the active infections identified by cell sorting and targeted omics.
  5. Global models. Phytoplankton–virus interactions integrated into global marine ecosystem models, validated against large-scale patterns of lysis rates and viral biogeography.

Facts

Full title Resolving marine phytoplankton–virus interactions from local to global scales
Project leader Prof. dr. Corina P.D. Brussaard (NIOZ)
Funder NWO, research programme XL (OCENW.XL.23.095)
Amount awarded €3,113,052
Duration NWO lists 2025–2030; NIOZ lists 31 Dec 2024 – 30 Sept 2029
Grant DOI 10.61686/AFOMM75533

Sources: NIOZ project page, NWO project database.