Global Ocean Microbiome

In the ocean, microbial communities are dominant drivers of biogeochemical processes and form the basis of a complex food web that is fueled by the fixation of carbon dioxide by oxygenic photosynthesis. Yet drawing a global picture of their distribution, diversity and function, and understanding the ecological determinants of their composition and response to environmental change remain grand challenges. We collaborate in several multi-​national projects, including Tara Oceans, Tara Pacific and Traversing European coastlines (TREC), that have systematically collected microbiome samples across all major oceans.

Tara Oceans: First results of the project were highlighted in a special issue of Science on ocean plankton. For more information and media coverage, see also the external pagepress releasecall_made and features:

• in scientific journals: external pageSciencecall_made, external pageNaturecall_made, external pageCellcall_made, external pageNat Rev Microbiolcall_made
• in the press: external pageNY Timescall_made, external pageBBC Newscall_made, external pageLe Mondecall_made, external pageSpiegel Onlinecall_made
• in the media: ZDF - heute journal (German), external pageSWR - Natuerlich! (German)call_made

One important finding was that in upper open ocean layers, temperature appears to be the strongest determinant of microbial community compositions (external pageSunagawa et al., 2015call_made). We further sought to investigate how microbial communities would adjust to environmental changes at global scale. Our results suggest that their activity would be most strongly affected by compositional changes in Arctic waters, where the rate of seawater warming is, compared to the rest of the ocean, disproportionally high (external pageSalazar et al., 2019call_made).

More information can be found in the external pagepress releasecall_made and features:

• in scientific journals: external pageNat Rev Microbiolcall_made
• in the press: external pageLe Tempscall_made
• in the media: external pageCellPresscall_made & external pageETH Zürichcall_made

The work of Tara Oceans between 2009-2019 has been reviewed in external pageSunagawa et al. (2020)call_made and a list of publications is available [here].

Ocean Microbiomics: In our most recent work, we explored the biosynthetic potential of ocean microbial communities at global scale (external pagePaoli et al., 2022call_made). To this end, we developed the external pageOcean Microbiomics Databasecall_made, an open genomic web resource of annotated single-cell, metagenome-assembled and reference genomes. Mining this data treasure trove, we identified not only previously unknown ocean microbial species, but also a biosyntetically diverse family of bacteria we named "Eudoremicrobiaceae" as well as novel, biochemically characterized enzymes and natural products.

See also the press release and features:

• in scientific journals: external pageNaturecall_made, external pageNat Rev Microbiol,call_made external pageNat Rev Genetcall_made
• in the media: external pageRadio Canadacall_made
  

Tara Pacific: This project focuses on coral reef organisms and the environment they inhabit in the Pacific Ocean. An overview of the associated expedition and the scientific project can be found [external pageherecall_made] and [external pageherecall_made].