In a recent article published in nature microbiology, teams from the Tara Ocean Foundation, Tara Oceans, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and the European Marine Biological Resource Centre - European Research Infrastructure Consortium (EMBRC-ERIC) have joined voices to identify key priorities for the future research activities on the marine microbiome.
"Microbial communities have essential roles in ocean ecology and planetary health. Microbes participate in nutrient cycles, remove huge quantities of carbon dioxide from the air and support ocean food webs. The taxonomic and functional diversity of the global ocean microbiome has been revealed by technological advances in sampling, DNA sequencing and bioinformatics.
A better understanding of the ocean microbiome could underpin strategies to address environmental and societal challenges, including achievement of multiple Sustainable Development Goals way beyond SDG 14 ‘life below water’.
[In the article, the authors] propose a set of priorities for understanding and protecting the ocean microbiome, which include delineating interactions between microbiota, sustainably applying resources from oceanic microorganisms and creating policy- and funder-friendly ocean education resources, and discuss how to achieve these ambitious goals."
AtlantECO is acknowledge as one of the key initiative which contributes to this crucial research, and hopefully this will pave the way for many more projects to come on marine microbiomes!