Abby L. Harvey
GHG Monitor
9/11/2015
The potential leakage of carbon dioxide into marine environments from sub-seabed storage locations could have significant effects on marine environments due to a decrease in viral production, according to a report published this week in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology. “Our experiment provides evidence, for the first time, that viral production and [virus-induced prokaryotic mortality (VIPM)] decreased significantly in the acidified sediments. It is known that there is a strong interconnection between benthic viral replication and host metabolism thus a decrease in prokaryotic metabolism is expected to determine a decrease in viral production, and consequently in prokaryotic mortality rates,” according to the report.
While numerous studies into the effect of potential CO2 leaks on other forms of marine life have been conducted the, less investigation has been done regarding the potential effects on viruses. “Marine viruses play a key role in biogeochemical processes … and sediments are hot-spots of viral infections with rates up to 1,000 times higher than in the overlying water column. Since all biotic components are potentially affected by viruses, the effect of any environmental stressor (such as CO2) on marine viruses could have important consequences far beyond this specific component of the ecosystem,” according to the report.
The researchers discovered that “exposure to levels of CO2 in the overlying seawater from 1,000 to 20,000 ppm for a period up to 140 days, resulted in a marked decrease in heterotrophic carbon production and organic matter degradation rates in the sediments, associated with lower rates of VIPM, and a progressive accumulation of sedimentary organic matter with increasing CO2 concentrations. These results suggest that the increase in seawater pCO2 levels that may result from CO2 leakage, can severely reduce the rates of microbial-mediated recycling of the sedimentary organic matter and viral infections, with major consequences on C cycling and nutrient regeneration, and hence on the functioning of benthic ecosystems.”
