Recently, American scientists who were exploring the sea near the famous Bermuda Triangle discovered another anomaly. They found that surface waters in this area are literally teeming with a wide variety of viruses. However, viruses pose no danger to humans, since they are only interested in ocean bacteria
The very phrase "Bermuda Triangle" appeared relatively recently - it was invented by a fan of spiritualism and esotericism Vincent Gaddis (Vincent Gaddis) in 1964. Speaking of him, Vincent was referring to the region located between the island of Puerto Rico, the coast of Florida and Bermuda. According to the famous mystic of the last century, this area of the Atlantic became infamous due to the fact that hundreds of ships and aircraft disappeared there. Some ships, however, were later found, but without crews and passengers.
All this led to the fact that Geddis suggested the presence of some anomaly in this area. However, he was not the first to talk about it. In 1950, American journalist Alexander Jones wrote an article about the mysterious disappearance of ships in this region (which he called simply and tastefully - the Devil's Sea). However, the Bermuda Triangle gained real popularity in 1974 when Charles Berlitz, the popularizer of science, published a book of the same title, in which he described various mysterious disappearances in the region. The book immediately became a bestseller, and the mysterious and dangerous Sea of the Devil became known to the whole world. After that, various groups of scientists were looking for reasons that would explain these disappearances.
However, over time, the skeptics prevailed over the lovers of mysticism. No anomalies were found in this part of the ocean, moreover, it was noted that the disappearance of ships in the Bermuda Triangle zone was not more common than in other areas of the world's oceans, and most of the disappearances were provoked by storms. Picky journalists analyzed Berlitz's book and found that most of the facts presented by the writer were not entirely true, and some turned out to be fiction at all.
In the 1990s, interest in the Bermuda Triangle faded away. Recently, however, scientists have again become interested in this area, as they discovered a new anomaly there, which, fortunately, has nothing to do with the disappearance of ships and aircraft.
A team of American scientists led by Professor Craig Carlson has been conducting oceanographic research in the northwestern Sargasso Sea for ten years. Interestingly, a recently published report states that the most abundant organisms living in the surface waters of this part of the ocean are viruses.
It is curious that the dynamics of the activity of these microscopic organisms is directly related to the seasons. In summer, they actively reproduce; a drop of water contains up to ten million of them. In winter, they are practically absent in surface waters, they seem to go to a depth. The researchers analyzed the DNA of the viruses and found that 90 percent of them are still unknown to science. However, these organisms, both known and unknown, do not pose a danger to humans. They all belong to the group of bacteriophages, that is, the objects of their attack are bacteria living in the ocean. Bacteriophages are known to be very "old-fashioned and conservative" in that they don't change their habits or attack other creatures.
In order to be able to reproduce, bacteriophages lie in wait for unsuspecting bacteria. They attach to their cell walls and integrate into the victim's DNA. This makes bacteria forget about their "duties" and focus on doing everything necessary to create new viruses. All viruses are born inside a bacterial cell, when the number of “newborn” bacteriophages reaches several million, they leave the host cell, actually destroying it, and then go in search of new victims.
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Organic molecules of dead bacteria fill everything around them, and since bacteriophages kill hundreds of thousands of cells, it is not surprising that the sea surface in this place turns into a nutritious broth. Other bacteria rush to feast on and quickly become new victims of cunning viruses. This means that bacteriophages form microscopic ecosystems.
Other sea creatures, unicellular and multicellular plankton organisms also enjoy the fruits of their labor. Some are attracted by the “free” nutrient broth, others by bacteria. It turns out that viruses create a kind of "cafe" in the surface waters of the sea. Even whales and dolphins come here to eat (they, in turn, are interested in schools of krill that feed on microplankton, as well as in fish that feed on krill).
Scientists were amazed at what they saw, because they did not know this role of viruses in the formation of the oceanic ecosystem. According to many oceanographers, ocean viruses are very little studied because they have always been difficult to catch. But now it is clear that their number is countless in all seas and oceans.
“Despite the fact that we cannot see them with the naked eye, viruses are the dominant form of life in the ocean. They account for 95 percent of the total ocean biomass. That is, the mass of viruses is even larger than the mass of krill, fish, and larger animals such as whales combined. Given the rate at which viruses multiply and their number, it becomes clear that they play a role in the planet's nutrient cycle,”says one of the study's authors.
