Community post

This paper by Samuel Barnett and Daniel Buckley explores the role of soil viruses in the carbon cycle. They added 13C-labelled carbon sources to soil and used metagenomic-SIP to detect 13C assimilation by viruses and their putative hosts. They found that the viral shunt promotes microbial turnover in soil following new C inputs, altering microbial community dynamics and facilitating soil organic matter production.