The viral shunt is a fundamental ecosystem process which diverts the flux of organic carbon fixed through photosynthesis during algal bloom events from heterotrophic grazers to bacteria. Through the extracellular release of metabolites, lytic viral infections supply 2-10% of photosynthetically fi...

Algal blooms drive global biogeochemical cycles of key nutrients in the oceans and serve as hotspots for biological interactions. The massive spring blooms of the cosmopolitan coccolithophore Emiliania huxleyi (E. huxleyi) are often infected by the lytic Emiliania huxleyi

Phaeocystis pouchetii (Hariot) Lagerheim, 1893 regularly dominates phytoplankton blooms in the Arctic. Through zooplankton grazing and microbial activity, it is considered to be a key resource for the entire marine food web but the actual relevance of biomass transfer to higher trophic levels is ...

Marine viruses play a key role in regulating phytoplankton populations, greatly affecting the biogeochemical cycling of major nutrients in the ocean. Resistance to viral infection has been reported for various phytoplankton species under laboratory conditions. Nevertheless, the occurrence of resi...

Algal blooms are hotspots of primary production in the ocean, forming the basis of the marine food web and fueling the dissolved organic matter (DOM) pool. Marine viruses are key players in controlling algal bloom demise, thereby diverting algal biomass from higher trophic levels to the DOM pool,...