Auditorium

Microbes have had a major role in shaping the planet we call home – and continue to do so in their impacts on the human population, agriculture, and climate. Yet we all know there are major gaps in our understanding of microbial trajectories and how they shape our environment (or health). This knowledge is critically important given the rapidity of ecosystem change caused by human activities. The oceans are no exception and present different challenges from the biomedical environment – yet both fields have much to lend each other in terms of the latest approaches to discovery and methodologies for elucidating organismal roles and mechanistic underpinnings of interactions, including host-microbe interactions. Here, we will discuss diversification and roles of marine microbial groups – from bacteria related to human pathogens to protists and beyond – from the surface to deep sea. We will also examine methods for discovering what home means for uncultivated marine groups as well as possible shifts in biogeochemical importance on short and long time-scales. Collectively, microbial evolution, cell-to-cell interactions, and physiological responses are key factors for algal uptake of atmospheric CO2, marine food webs, and major biogeochemical cycles that maintain the biosphere we know and love so well.