Viral Curiosity Drives Texas A&M Galveston Study of Super Salty Laguna Madre
Historic freeze, tropical storm, and global pandemic influence research behind an article co-authored by Dr. Jessica Labonté.
Drs. Jordan Walker and Jessica Labonté co-authored an article in the June 2026 issue of Environmental Microbiology Reports. (Photo Courtesy Dr. Jessica Labonté)
Don’t let COVID-19 fool you. Not all viruses are bad. Many viruses play essential roles in the environment, and some could eventually become tools to combat or even prevent the red and brown tides that threaten sea life, coastal economies and human health.
But first, scientists need a much deeper understanding of these submicroscopic, infectious agents and their hosts. Viral ecologists such as Dr. Jessica Labonté of Texas A&M University at Galveston (TAMUG) continue to pursue that level of knowledge, even when it means pivoting during a worldwide pandemic.
“I don’t study viruses that infect humans or animals,” said the associate professor of marine biology in the College of Marine Sciences & Maritime Studies. “The viruses that I study – those that infect bacteria and phytoplankton – are essential for the equilibrium of the environment.”
Labonté co-authored a recent article based on research that was impacted by the COVID-19 shutdown, historic weather events, and an unexpected weakening of the decades-long brown tide algae bloom in the Laguna Madre. The lagoon, separated from The Gulf by Padre Island, extends from Corpus Christi south to Mexico.
“Viral Assemblages of a Hypersaline Estuary Show Divergent Responses to Freshwater and Temperature Disturbances” in the June 2026 issue of Environmental Microbiology Reports highlights the importance of understanding how changing conditions affect the ability of viral communities to influence crucial biogeochemical cycles.
The Texas General Office funded the research, which was conducted for a dissertation by Dr. Jordan Walker ’19, the article’s lead author who earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree in marine biology and biological oceanography from TAMUG in 2024. Other co-authors were Dr. Jeffrey Turner, an associate professor of marine biology at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi (TAMU-CC), and Dr. Paxton Bachand, a 2016 TAMUG graduate who earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree in environmental microbiology in 2022 from TAMU-CC.
The researchers noted how a massive freshwater influx shifted the composition of the viral community, while extreme cold altered the genes that modify host metabolism during infection.
Though COVID-19 reduced how frequently samplings could be taken, researchers gathered useful data from the understudied Laguna Madre, one of only six such lagoons in the world where the salt concentration exceeds levels of typical marine environments – and one of the largest, stretching 130 miles along the Texas Gulf Coast.
The lagoon had been plagued for decades with long-lasting brown tides, caused by blooms of Aureoumbra lagunensis, a phytoplankton that viruses in the region have been slow to kill. The blooms, though not toxic, can devastate sea life by blocking sunlight and depleting oxygen.
“If a bloom lasts for 30 years, clearly viruses are not doing their job, so the original idea was to look at the interactions between viruses, bacteria, and this alga to see where the disconnect is,” Labonté said.
The bloom wasn’t as present as expected during sampling from May 2020 through July 2021, but weather events led to changes worth examining.
Winter Storm Uri hampered sea life along the Texas coast in February 2021, while Tropical Storm Claudette dumped enough rain along the Texas Gulf Coast in June 2021 to temporarily change the salinity level in the Laguna Madre to that of a typical marine environment.
Data collected after those events add to a growing knowledge base about viruses, viral hosts, and the impact on algal blooms. While the research isn’t applied yet, the more scholars learn, the closer they get to employing marine microbiology as a force for good to protect coastal sea life, recreation, and commerce.
“The blooms are where research has to go,” Labonté said. “If we better understand the relationship between the phytoplankton and the virus, and how other microbes are interacting, we can seek nature-based solutions.”
