Hydrothermal vents
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Deep Sea Benthic Viral Ecology: Impact of Virus-Encoded Auxiliary Metabolic Genes on Biogeochemical Cycling
Abstract: The deep ocean benthos, comprising abyssal plains, hadal trenches, cold seeps, hydrothermal vent chimneys, and sub-seafloor sediment basements, represents the largest and least explored biosphere on Earth. Operating under extreme hydrostatic pressure, low temperature (or extreme thermal gradients), and localized energy scarcity, benthic microbial communities govern fundamental global biogeochemical fluxes. Emerging high-throughput metagenomic, single-cell viromic, and transcriptomic evidence reveals that deep-sea viruses are not merely passive agents of microbial mortality, …
Published in International Journal of Marine Life · Vol. 3, Issue 2, 2026 Read article