SCOPE synthesis: vDarwin Initiative

Funded by: The Simons Foundation

Synthesis Project Contacts: Stephanie Dutkiewicz & Joshua Weitz

The Simons Collaboration on Ocean Processes and Ecology (SCOPE) aimed to advance our understanding of the biology, biogeochemistry, ecology and evolution of microbial processes at a representative ocean benchmark, Station ALOHA, located in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre (NPSG), and at transition zones on the edges of the NPSG. SCOPE studied the ocean ecosystem in situ, at multiple levels of biological organization (genetic, biochemical, physiological, biogeochemical and ecological), to understand the pathways and exchanges of energy and matter between microbial groups and with their environment at nested spatial and temporal scales, from surface waters to the deep sea.

Researchers on the SCOPE synthesis project are uniquely placed to build vDarwin – a ‘viral-enhanced Darwin’ model – leveraging multiple advances developed in the SCOPE project, including cross-validated viral ecology models (developed via MAHALO), advances in large-scale Earth system models (via ‘Darwin’), advances in model-data integration, and methods to probe lineage-specific viral abundances and infection rates in situ. The three focal areas of this project are (i) analytical modeling building to explore coexistence of hosts, viruses and grazers; (ii) synthesis of measured virus-host traits across sizes and environments; (iii) proof-of-principle vDarwin prototype with idealized sensitivity experiments. These three focal areas will build toward synthesis work to quantify the relative impacts of viruses on cyanobacteria mortality and biogeography, and impacts on carbon flows at global scales.