Scientists chart diversity, function and activity of global supraglacial DNA viruses
Supraglacial environments mainly consist of four main types of habitats for microbes and viruses, including snow, ice, meltwater and cryoconites (the granular sediment on glacier surfaces). A new paper published in Science Bulletin reveals that there were more than 10,000 viral species in global supraglacial environments. This is a 15-fold expansion of DNA viral genomic inventory ever known.