A bacteriophage virus can kill microbes, influencing what happens to the carbon in their bodies
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Viruses that infect other microbes could influence the movement of more than a billion tons of carbon in the soil, according to the first attempt to quantify their role in one of the planet’s major carbon stocks.
“Even though there are still gaps, we understand that viruses can have a huge impact on soil carbon,” says Kirsten Hofmockel at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Washington state.
