As humans alter the planet’s climate and ecosystems, scientists are looking to Earth’s history to help predict what may unfold from climate change. To this end, massive ice structures like glaciers serve as nature’s freezers, archiving detailed records of past climates and ecosystems – including viruses.
We are a team of microbiologists and paleoclimatologists who study ancient microorganisms, including viruses preserved within glacier ice. Along with our colleagues Lonnie Thompson, and Virginia Rich and other researchers at the Ice Core Paleoclimatology group at The Ohio State University, we investigate interactions between viruses and their environment archived in ice cores from the Guliya Glacier on the Tibetan Plateau.
By linking the genomes of ancient viral communities to specific climate conditions preserved in glacier ice, our newly published research offers insights into how these viruses have adapted to Earth’s shifting climate over the past 41,000 years.
