Speaker
Description
Viruses are the most abundant biological entities on Earth and are ubiquitous across ecosystems, from oceans and soils to the atmosphere, and play critical roles in regulating microbial communities and biogeochemical cycles. As climate change accelerates, understanding the ecological functions of viruses becomes increasingly important. This talk will examine how genomics and data science converge to uncover the roles of viruses in climate-related processes. We'll explore methods such as viral metagenomics (viromes), machine learning, and ecological modeling to identify viral genomes and investigate viral contributions to biogeochemical cycling, microbial interactions, and ecosystem resilience. By using these approaches, we aim to shed light on the hidden influencers of our planet’s climate system.
