Assessment of Explicit Representation of Dynamic Viral Processes in Regional Marine Ecological Models
Viruses, the most abundant microorganisms in the ocean, play important roles in marine ecosystems, mainly by killing their hosts and contributing to nutrient recycling. However, in models simulating ecosystems in real marine environments, the virus-mediated mortality (VMM) rates of their hosts are i...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2022-06-01
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| Series: | Viruses |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4915/14/7/1448 |
| _version_ | 1797443189299216384 |
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| author | Le Xie Rui Zhang Ya-Wei Luo |
| author_facet | Le Xie Rui Zhang Ya-Wei Luo |
| author_sort | Le Xie |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Viruses, the most abundant microorganisms in the ocean, play important roles in marine ecosystems, mainly by killing their hosts and contributing to nutrient recycling. However, in models simulating ecosystems in real marine environments, the virus-mediated mortality (VMM) rates of their hosts are implicitly represented by constant parameters, thus ignoring the dynamics caused by interactions between viruses and hosts. Here, we construct a model explicitly representing marine viruses and the VMM rates of major hosts, heterotrophic bacteria, and apply it to two sites in the oligotrophic North Pacific and the more productive Arabian Sea. The impacts of the viral processes were assessed by comparing model results with the viral processes enabled and disabled. For reliable assessments, a data assimilation method was used to objectively optimize the model parameters in each run. The model generated spatiotemporally variable VMM rates, generally decreasing in the subsurface but increasing at the surface. Although the dynamics introduced by viruses could be partly stabilized by the ecosystems, they still caused substantial changes to the bacterial abundance, primary production and carbon export, with the changes greater at the more productive site. Our modeling experiments reveal the importance of explicitly simulating dynamic viral processes in marine ecological models. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T12:52:26Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-ea2c3b2535924e08a7c17b013c431a3f |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1999-4915 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T12:52:26Z |
| publishDate | 2022-06-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Viruses |
| spelling | doaj.art-ea2c3b2535924e08a7c17b013c431a3f2023-11-30T22:05:04ZengMDPI AGViruses1999-49152022-06-01147144810.3390/v14071448Assessment of Explicit Representation of Dynamic Viral Processes in Regional Marine Ecological ModelsLe Xie0Rui Zhang1Ya-Wei Luo2State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, College of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361102, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, College of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361102, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, College of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361102, ChinaViruses, the most abundant microorganisms in the ocean, play important roles in marine ecosystems, mainly by killing their hosts and contributing to nutrient recycling. However, in models simulating ecosystems in real marine environments, the virus-mediated mortality (VMM) rates of their hosts are implicitly represented by constant parameters, thus ignoring the dynamics caused by interactions between viruses and hosts. Here, we construct a model explicitly representing marine viruses and the VMM rates of major hosts, heterotrophic bacteria, and apply it to two sites in the oligotrophic North Pacific and the more productive Arabian Sea. The impacts of the viral processes were assessed by comparing model results with the viral processes enabled and disabled. For reliable assessments, a data assimilation method was used to objectively optimize the model parameters in each run. The model generated spatiotemporally variable VMM rates, generally decreasing in the subsurface but increasing at the surface. Although the dynamics introduced by viruses could be partly stabilized by the ecosystems, they still caused substantial changes to the bacterial abundance, primary production and carbon export, with the changes greater at the more productive site. Our modeling experiments reveal the importance of explicitly simulating dynamic viral processes in marine ecological models.https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4915/14/7/1448marine virusheterotrophic bacteriamarine ecological modeldata assimilation |
| spellingShingle | Le Xie Rui Zhang Ya-Wei Luo Assessment of Explicit Representation of Dynamic Viral Processes in Regional Marine Ecological Models Viruses marine virus heterotrophic bacteria marine ecological model data assimilation |
| title | Assessment of Explicit Representation of Dynamic Viral Processes in Regional Marine Ecological Models |
| title_full | Assessment of Explicit Representation of Dynamic Viral Processes in Regional Marine Ecological Models |
| title_fullStr | Assessment of Explicit Representation of Dynamic Viral Processes in Regional Marine Ecological Models |
| title_full_unstemmed | Assessment of Explicit Representation of Dynamic Viral Processes in Regional Marine Ecological Models |
| title_short | Assessment of Explicit Representation of Dynamic Viral Processes in Regional Marine Ecological Models |
| title_sort | assessment of explicit representation of dynamic viral processes in regional marine ecological models |
| topic | marine virus heterotrophic bacteria marine ecological model data assimilation |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4915/14/7/1448 |
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