Sigitas Šulčius, PhD

TITLE: Viral Reshuffling of Microbial Ecosystems

To understand the aquatic ecosystems, we must begin by analyzing its many individual processes one at a time. Among the numerous and diverse microbial interactions occurring in nature, the role of viruses in structuring host population dynamics, reshuffling community composition and cycling of energy and matter remains, to a large extent, a mystery. By using an established virus-host model systems for ecologically relevant cyanobacteria, which forms annually reoccurring harmful blooms in brackish and freshwater environments, I will shed light on the potential of viruses to influence various components of the planktonic community and to modify the overall functioning of microbial food web. I will discuss these results in the context of water quality, ecosystem services and human health. Only by understanding how each piece in this puzzle of multiple microbial interactions responds to each other can we reliably obtain an integrated picture of the functioning of our ecosystems.