Ecology of Microbes in Marine and Estuarine Ecosystems

Dear Colleagues,

The marine environment, which constitutes a large fraction of the Earth’s surface, is teeming with a vast array of microbes such as bacteria, archaea, viruses, fungi, and protists that are genetically, physiologically, and ecologically diverse. Invisible to the naked eye, these life forms that encompass a taxonomically and functionally different lineage represent unfathomable levels of marine diversity. Marine microbes, which dominate the living biomass, are known to exist rationally in any environment and garner energy from a variety of sources, ranging from solar radiation to chemosynthesis. Through their numerous and novel metabolic strategies, they contribute significantly to all global biogeochemical cycles of matter and energy. The staggering presence of unprecedented microbial diversity flourishing in the marine environment as revealed through ‘omics’ approaches has dramatically changed our understanding of the distribution of genes and organisms as well as the selective forces that structure microbial community composition and distribution across space and time. The combined effect of countless and complex interactions occurring among different microbial taxa underpins community stability and functioning of marine ecosystems. A great deal of research on the biogeography of marine microorganisms has been carried out, but many unknowns persist, and more work is needed to elucidate and understand their complexity.

The Special Issue is devoted to advancing the study on the ecology of microbes across different marine environments (coastal zone, estuaries, oceanic and polar systems) focusing on a broad spectrum of topics pertaining to their distribution, activity, physiology, metabolism, and identification of diversity of bacteria, archaea, viruses, fungi, and protists in the water column and sediments. 

Dr. Angia Sriram Pradeep Ram
Guest Editor

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