Researchers examined viruses in peatland soils from 66 locations across seven UK peatland sites, comparing natural, damaged and restored areas.
Their analysis revealed that viruses behaved in a similar way in each type of peatland, adapting their behavior based on the stability of the habitat.
Carbon storage
Changes in viral behavior affects the dynamics of the soil’s microbiome, influencing which bacterium are present and how efficiently bacteria can process and store carbon, experts say.
Peatlands, like other types of wetlands, play a crucial role in storing carbon that would otherwise remain in the atmosphere and contribute to global warming.
Previous research has shown that despite covering only three percent of the Earth's surface, peatlands are estimated to contain up to one-third of global soil carbon due to their oxygen poor conditions that drastically slows down the decomposition and release of carbon into the atmosphere.
Under threat
But these fragile ecosystems are under increasing threat from environmental disturbances including climate change, drainage and damage caused by land use. Some areas are even switching from being carbon sinks to carbon sources, experts say.
Virus behaviour
Scientists from the Universities of Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Wisconsin–Madison found that in natural peatlands viruses were able to infect cells of microbes, replicate and then kill the cell before leaving to infect other cells. This keeps microbe populations in check and the ecosystem relatively stable.
In damaged peatlands, they found that the viruses opt to hunker down in infected cells after replicating rather than immediately killing them.
Through looking at which viruses were present in a soil sample, researchers could determine if a wetland was natural, has been damaged or if restoration efforts are working.
Global impact
The team believes the patterns of viruses observed across UK peatlands could be applicable on a global scale and as the research continues, they hope to investigate how viruses could be useful tools to influence the restoration of peatlands.
The study, published in Nature Microbiology, was funded by UKRI Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), Scottish Universities Partnership for Environmental Research (SUPER) and the National Science Foundation.
Future research
Dr Ashish Malik is continuing to work on the topic through a recently funded Human Frontier Science Program research grant ($1.5M) that he is leading with partners from the Universities of Wisconsin-Madison (USA), Lyon (France), California (USA) and Stellenbosch (South Africa). The team are focusing on how peatland viruses can influence the production and consumption of methane by microbes.