More than half the biomass on Earth is made up of microorganisms: bacteria, archaea, protists, fungi, unicellular algae and viruses. They are the most abundant and diverse forms of life on our planet and are the chief engineers of the global carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus cycles. Paradoxically, microbes are also the life forms about which we know the least. Startling advances in environmental genomics and high performance computing are now enabling researchers to decipher the genetic code of entire communities of microorganisms. When coupled with advances in automated remote-controlled submersible technologies, this will make possible the deployment of genomic sensors to examine, with unprecedented resolving power, the properties and activities of microorganisms on our planet. The Center of Microbial Oceanography Research and Education (C-MORE) headquartered at the University of Hawaii (UH) will bring together a multidisciplinary team of scientists and educators to focus on the identities, roles and impacts of microorganisms in the world's largest biome: the ocean. The center is to have four research foci: i) genomic, physiological and other aspects of microbial diversity; ii) the role of microbial metabolism in elemental cycling; iii) development and deployment of novel sensors and instruments for remote automated sampling and processing; and iv) computer simulation, modeling and forecasting of ecosystem processes. Oceanographic, microbiological, genomic, geochemical, informatic and computational methods will be the means through which these foci are integrated with one another via team studies of the North Pacific subtropical gyre. The result will be the first high resolution view of inter-dependent microbial lifestyles and processes that govern the flow of energy and elements in the ocean.
C-MORE will integrate the four research themes and their objectives with a varied and diverse portfolio of education and outreach activities for students of all ages. The Center will push interdisciplinary collaboration between faculty, students and postdoctoral scientists in an accelerated fashion to train a new breed of microbial oceanographer, and will help to train teachers and develop curricula at the undergraduate and secondary education levels. Implementation of these activities is also designed to increase the number of students and teachers engaged in quantitative sciences and engineering, focusing on underrepresented groups in science, especially Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders.
The center will be led by a team of four marine microbial ecologists: David Karl, Sallie Chisholm, Edward DeLong and Jonathan Zehr. Another fourteen scientists and educators will be collaborators, covering biological, physical, geochemical and engineering aspects of oceanography as well as genomic, physiological and ecological aspects of microbiology. In addition to UH, co-PIs and collaborators represent five other institutions (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, Oregon State University, University of California Santa Cruz and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution).
The consolidated efforts of the Center will drive research in microbial oceanography forward at a vastly accelerated rate. Automated remote and in situ sampling and sensing platforms, coupled with mathematical modeling will provide a template for future networks of microbial observing systems. These will provide the sort of information that science and society require to understand and manage our changing Earth system.
