Researchers sail on the ship Tara during their Polar Circle expedition in 2013. (Credit: A. Deniaud Garcia/ Foundation Tara Ocean) The oceans are crawling with viruses. An international team of researchers surveyed the world’s oceans from pole to pole, sampling the waters for the microorganisms and they found nearly 200,000 of them. Although we mostly think of viruses in terms of being sick, in the oceans, viruses and other marine microbes have an outsized impact on marine ecosystems. Their role is so large in fact that the researchers say the microorganisms can help predict how the oceans will respond to climate change. "This new understanding of viruses ... may help scientists better understand how the oceans will behave under the pressures of climate change," Ahmed Zayed, a graduate student in microbiology at the Ohio State University in Columbus, who authored the new research, said in a statement.
Oceans soak up ...
