Abstract:Viruses are the most abundant biological entities on the Earth, they play important roles in altering their host community structures, driving global biogeochemical cycles, and promoting the biological evolution. Viruses are commonly regarded as‘dark matter’of biota. Recently, the researches on viral ecology are progressing rapidly in marine environments, while the corresponding studies in terrestrial ecosystem especially in soil environments were largely lagged. In this paper, the recent research progress on soil virus, such as viral abundance, morphological and genetic diversity, research methodology, and ecological functions were briefly reviewed from the viewpoint of ecology. The purpose of this paper aims at calling for scientists who engaged in soil microorganism and soil ecology research to pay attention on the study of soil virus, and finally promote the development of soil viral ecology.