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Priorities for ocean microbiome research

Microbial communities play essential roles in ocean ecology and planetary health. A recent publication highlights priorities for understanding and protecting ocean microbiomes.

Visualising the ocean below and above surface, showing several species and giving written details on the ocean microbiome composition — Microscopic organisms represent more than two-thirds of the biomass in the ocean. They perform almost as much photosynthesis as plants do on land, locking vast quantities of carbon away from the atmosphere, and underpin the ocean food web. Credit: Rayne Zaayman-Gallant/EMBL

Microbial communities in the ocean are vital for both environmental and human health. They participate in nutrient cycles, remove huge quantities of carbon dioxide from the air and support ocean food webs.

The Tara Ocean Foundation, Tara Oceans, EMBL, and the European Marine Biological Resource Centre present priorities for ocean microbiomes and discuss how to achieve the ambitious goals. The paper published in Nature Microbiology is available to read Open Access.

visualisation of the timeline of ocean microbiome research since late the 1600s, providing dates and symbolic pictures referring to the dates — Timeline of ocean microbiome research. Technological advances have enabled scientists to study the microbiome in ever increasing detail. Credit: Rayne Zaayman-Gallant/EMBL

Source article(s)

Priorities for ocean microbiome research

Tara Ocean Foundation, Tara Oceans, European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and European Marine Biological Resource Centre - European Research Infrastructure Consortium (EMBRC-ERIC)

Nature Microbiology 30 June 2022

Doi: 10.1038/s41564-022-01145-5

Related links

Tags: biodiversity, embl programme, environment, microbiome, ocean, tara ocean foundation, tara oceans

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