Science
The Great Barrier Reef's Invisible Army: How 360,000 Viruses Could Be Its Salvation
Scientists just mapped the Great Barrier Reef's entire microbiome, discovering 360,000 viruses and 500 new bacterial species. Here's why this invisible universe might be the reef's best hope against climate change.

The Announcement
Scientists have completed the first comprehensive map of the Great Barrier Reef's microbiome — the vast, invisible ecosystem of microbes living in and around the world's largest living structure. The research, reported by The Guardian, analyzed DNA from seawater samples collected across 48 individual reefs and identified more than 360,000 distinct viruses, along with 808,585 viral genomes belonging to an estimated 362,802 different viral species. Perhaps most remarkably, the...
Great Barrier Reef
microbiome
coral conservation
marine biology
viral ecology
climate resilience
biodiversity
reef science
Share