Six weeks after Queen Máxima christened the RV Anna Weber-van Bosse on the island of Texel, the Netherlands’ new flagship ocean research vessel has embarked on its first scientific cruise. The nearly 80-metre ship, operated by the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ), is now crossing the Atlantic Ocean as part of the PHYVIR project, a multidisciplinary research effort studying the role of viruses in marine ecosystems.

On board are researchers from NIOZ, the University of Amsterdam (UvA), the University of Groningen (RUG) and the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW). The expedition is led by Prof Dr Corina Brussaard of NIOZ and UvA, alongside Prof Van de Waal (NIOO), Dr Wilken and Prof Huisman (both UvA) and Dr Hackle (RUG).

The cruise takes the team from the warm, nutrient-poor waters off Cape Verde all the way north to the cooler, nutrient-rich waters near Iceland. Along this transect, the researchers are collecting water samples from the sunlit upper ocean to study the diversity, gene function, activity and loss rates of phytoplankton and virus communities, as well as their impact on elemental and lipid composition.

Knowledge gap

The science behind the voyage addresses a striking knowledge gap. Phytoplankton produce roughly half of the Earth’s oxygen, absorb vast amounts of CO2 and underpin marine food webs. Yet despite the outsized role viruses play in shaping ecosystems on land, surprisingly little is known about how they interact with phytoplankton in the ocean. The PHYVIR project aims to change that, investigating how viral infections alter phytoplankton functioning, how often different phytoplankton groups are killed by viruses and what this means for the ocean’s carbon cycle and capacity to store carbon.

The answers matter well beyond marine biology. A better understanding of virus-phytoplankton dynamics will help refine climate models and improve predictions of marine primary production at a time of rapid environmental change.

The RV Anna Weber-van Bosse, hailed as one of the most technologically advanced research vessels in the world, provides an exceptional platform for this work, accommodating around 30 scientists and equipped with integrated sensors, autonomous underwater drones and real-time data connections.

For a closer look at the vessel’s capabilities, read our recent article ‘Designing RV Anna Weber-van Bosse‘.

Start of the PHYVIR cruise in Mindelo, on the island of São Vicente, Cape Verde. (Image courtesy: NIOZ)