Scientists discover nearly 2,000,000 new virus species in the ocean

According to one study, nearly 2,000,000 new virus species are hiding in the depths of the oceans. The amazing new discovery was made during a pole-to-pole expedition led to study marine life.

The new discovery is considered so important that before that, researchers had only discovered 15,000 species of viruses in the ocean. Experts believe this new discovery could help humans learn more about the evolution of life on the planet and will also reveal more details about the potential consequences of climate change.

The scientists came to this conclusion after analyzing samples taken between 2009 and 2013 by a crew on board, the Tara, a ship that has been conducting exploration activities in the oceans for many years.

"Viruses are those little things that you can not even see, but because they're there in so many, they really matter." We've developed a distribution map that's fundamental for anyone who wants to study how viruses Many things have surprised us about our discoveries, "said Matthew Sullivan, a microbiologist at Ohio State University, reports Eurekalert.org.

After the discovery, the researchers also divided the viruses into five distinct ecological zones despite their complexity: all the depths of the Arctic and Antarctic and three distinct depths of temperate and tropical regions.

It is interesting to note that the Arctic Ocean, where scientists did not expect biodiversity, has turned out to be the hotspot of life, and this intriguing discovery indicates that the oceans are a mysterious world that requires a lot of exploration in the future.

"Having a new location map of these viruses can help us understand this ocean carbon" pump "and, more generally, the biogeochemistry that impacts the planet.The previous ocean ecosystem models had generally ignored microbes and included rarely viruses, but we know they are an essential element to include, "added Sullivan.

These new discoveries have been published in Journal Cell.

A few weeks ago, researchers from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) discovered more than 7,000 new marine species from the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans. The researchers revealed that this discovery could shed new light on the understanding of microbial biodiversity in the seas.