Viruses are abundant and ecologically important in soils, yet the persistence and production dynamics of extracellular virions remain poorly understood.

The gap

Consensus across the literature

Supporting evidence — 3 representative gaps

• Spatial and depth structuring predominate over temporal variation in Mediterranean climate grassland soil viral communities (2026) · doi

  Abstract Viruses have the potential to influence microbial community structure and elemental cycling in soils, but it remains unclear how these communities are distributed across space and time, which can shape how they respond to environmental change and impact ecosystem processes.

  Keywords: abstract viruses potential influence microbial community structure elemental cycling soils remains unclear communities distributed across
• A global atlas of soil viruses reveals unexplored biodiversity and potential biogeochemical impacts (2024) · doi

  Rarefaction curves from the Global Soil Virus Atlas indicate that most soil viral diversity remains unexplored, further underscored by high spatial turnover and low rates of shared viral operational taxonomic units across samples.

  Keywords: soil viral rarefaction curves global virus atlas indicate diversity remains unexplored further underscored high spatial
• Disentangling Production and Persistence of Extracellular Virions in Grassland Soils with SIP-Viromics (2026) · doi

  Viruses are abundant and ecologically important in soils, yet the persistence and production dynamics of extracellular virions remain poorly understood.

  Keywords: viruses abundant ecologically important soils persistence production dynamics extracellular virions remain poorly understood