Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 23 May 2008:
Vol. 320. no. 5879, pp. 1043 - 1045
DOI: 10.1126/science.1153527
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Review

Microbial Ecology of Ocean Biogeochemistry: A Community Perspective

Suzanne L. Strom

The oceans harbor a tremendous diversity of marine microbes. Different functional groups of bacteria, archaea, and protists arise from this diversity to dominate various habitats and drive globally important biogeochemical cycles. Explanations for the distribution of microbial taxa and their associated activity often focus on resource availability and abiotic conditions. However, the continual reshaping of communities by mortality, allelopathy, symbiosis, and other processes shows that community interactions exert strong selective pressure on marine microbes. Deeper exploration of microbial interactions is now possible via molecular prospecting and taxon-specific experimental approaches. A holistic outlook that encompasses the full array of selective pressures on individuals will help elucidate the maintenance of microbial diversity and the regulation of biogeochemical reactions by planktonic communities.

Shannon Point Marine Center, Western Washington University, Anacortes, WA 98221, USA. E-mail: Suzanne.Strom{at}wwu.edu

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Bacterial chemotaxis towards the extracellular products of the toxic phytoplankton Heterosigma akashiwo.
J. R. Seymour, T. Ahmed, and R. Stocker (2009)
J. Plankton Res. 31, 1557-1561
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Impact of sideways and bottom-up control factors on bacterial community succession over a tidal cycle.
A. Chauhan, J. Cherrier, and H. N. Williams (2009)
PNAS 106, 4301-4306
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)