PROJECTS
Viruses in Tubes
Deep within Hawai’i's lava tubes—dark, humid underground passages formed by ancient volcanic activity—is a hidden world of microorganisms that have adapted to one of Earth's most extreme environments. Our research explores how viruses interact with these remarkable microbial communities, which form mats and films on the tube walls despite the complete absence of sunlight and scarce nutrients. While viruses are often thought of as harmful, in these isolated ecosystems they may actually play a crucial role in maintaining the delicate balance of life by controlling bacterial populations and recycling nutrients. Using advanced microscopy techniques we're investigating fundamental questions about how many cells are infected by viruses, whether certain types of microbes are more susceptible to viral attack, and how these interactions vary throughout different parts of the tube systems. This research not only helps us understand how life persists in extreme environments on Earth, but also provides insights that could inform our search for life in similar cave systems that have been discovered on Mars and the Moon. Photo credit = National Park Service.
Myriam Labbé, Denis Sarrazin & Alex Culley sampling in Neige Bay, Milne Fjord (Photo courtesy of D. Sarrazin)
Microbes on Ice
Protists, prokaryotes, and viruses constitute the most abundant and diverse biological entities in aquatic environments, forming the foundation of microbial communities. These microorganisms drive nutrient and energy cycling, making their dynamics and interactions fundamental to understanding aquatic ecosystem ecology. Among these microbial components, viruses remain relatively understudied despite their critical ecological roles. Viruses are not only the most abundant biological entities on Earth but also shape host community structure and evolution, ultimately influencing ecosystem-wide productivity.
Our research program centers on two interconnected themes: aquatic viral ecology under climate change and viral discovery. The Arctic provides an ideal natural laboratory for investigating these themes because the region experiences some of Earth's most dramatic climate-driven changes and contains diverse aquatic habitats with largely uncharacterized viral communities. The long-term objective of our research is to understand the impact, diversity, and dynamics of in situ viral communities across diverse Arctic aquatic habitats, particularly how viral ecology responds to rapid ecosystem changes.
To address fundamental ecological questions about Arctic viruses, we will focus on two strategically selected sites that exemplify climate-driven environmental dynamism. The first sampling site is an epishelf lake located on the northern coast of Ellesmere Island in the Canadian High Arctic, and the second is Cambridge Bay, located on the southeastern coast of Victoria Island in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. These locations will serve as comparative systems for investigating first-order ecological questions about viral communities in rapidly changing Arctic environments.