title: Marine microbes see a sea of gradients.
abstract: Marine bacteria influence Earth's environmental dynamics in fundamental ways by controlling the biogeochemistry and productivity of the oceans. These large-scale consequences result from the combined effect of countless interactions occurring at the level of the individual cells. At these small scales, the ocean is surprisingly heterogeneous, and microbes experience an environment of pervasive and dynamic chemical and physical gradients. Many species actively exploit this heterogeneity, while others rely on gradient-independent adaptations. This is an exciting time to explore this frontier of oceanography, but understanding microbial behavior and competition in the context of the water column's microarchitecture calls for new ecological frameworks, such as a microbial optimal foraging theory, to determine the relevant trade-offs and global consequences of microbial life in a sea of gradients.
authors.affiliation: Ralph M. Parsons Laboratory, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 49-213, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. romans@mit.edu
authors.forename: Roman
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Stocker
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D059001:Aquatic Organisms / Q000502:physiology*; D001419:Bacteria / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development; D018407:Bacterial Physiological Phenomena; D044822:Biodiversity; D005075:Biological Evolution; D002633:Chemotaxis; D017753:Ecosystem; D004777:Environment; D009792:Oceans and Seas; D012623:Seawater / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000382:microbiology*; D014871:Water Microbiology