Comment by boredatoms
9 hours ago
Im curious about the food chain part, what happens to individual viruses over time, do they ‘die’ or degrade somehow?
9 hours ago
Im curious about the food chain part, what happens to individual viruses over time, do they ‘die’ or degrade somehow?
Viruses are bundle of DNA with an attitude. Lacking any active metabolism, they just denature with time.
While they don't age like living organisms, their outer protein coating wears away due to temperature and UV light, so like you said they sort of "degrade".