Wildfire experiments-2025-16s

Wildfire profoundly alters global ecosystem carbon cycling, with amplification by anthropogenic climate changes. Concurrently, viruses are emerging as influential participants in soil carbon cycling. However, current uncertainty about how soil viruses regulate microbial processes limits mechanistic understanding of post-fire recovery and soil carbon stabilization. Here, we integrate wildfire chronosequence field sampling, viral transplantation microcosms, and global forest viromics to reveal that wildfire selects for rare, functionally enriched viruses and fundamentally restructures soil virosphere and its ecological functions.