Viruses Reason For Paradox Of The Deep Sea
By Matt J. Weiss, August 31, 2008 @ 02:00 AM (EST)
It has always been a mystery why the deep sea animals did not take advantage of the huge amount of nutrients found on the sea bed. When I mean a huge amount, I mean huge-up to 30-45 percent of the carbon found inside microbes, a main source of carbon, is found in the first 10 centimeters of abyssal sediment. However, animals don't take advantage of what was thought to be a untapped resource. Why? Viruses.
As it turns out, there are a whole lot of viruses found in bottom of the sea floor, too. How much is a whole lot? Try 1 billion viruses per gram of sediment. These viruses infect the microbes causing them to burst open and release the nutrients into the water column - only to fall into the hands of more microbes, which leads to more viruses so on and so forth. This is called "viral shunt"
The researchers determined that the microbes and viruses were eating each other, rendering the resource useless for deep sea animals.
As it turns out, there are a whole lot of viruses found in bottom of the sea floor, too. How much is a whole lot? Try 1 billion viruses per gram of sediment. These viruses infect the microbes causing them to burst open and release the nutrients into the water column - only to fall into the hands of more microbes, which leads to more viruses so on and so forth. This is called "viral shunt"
The researchers determined that the microbes and viruses were eating each other, rendering the resource useless for deep sea animals.
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