Marine microbial ecology is the study of interactions among microbes in the oceans and the role of microbes in biogeochemical cycles, foodweb dynamics, and in the evolution of life. Marine microbes are the most numerous organisms in the biosphere and mediate nearly all critical reactions in elemental cycles and biogeochemical reactions on the planet. Since microbes are essential components and players in the carbon cycle, marine microbial ecology is key to understanding the role of the oceans in global warming and other climate change processes.
The first and second editions of “Microbial Ecology of the Oceans” were very successful and remain key books in aquatic microbial ecology; they are used by freshwater scientists in addition to biologists and chemists working in the oceans. While the books are still widely used, the chapters were written over 16 and 8 years ago. Since then, there have been huge advances in many of the topics discussed in the first and second editions. The first edition does not cover several new findings discovered after 2000, and the second edition barely touches the revolution in methodological approaches that are now widely used.
That the field continues to be active, and that is rising even more attention than a few years ago is supported by the special issues published by Nature (Nature insight, May 2009), Science (May 2008), Oceanography (“A sea of microbes”, December 2007) or Nature Reviews Microbiology (Focus on Marine Microbiology, May 2007); by the
continuously rising impact factors of some of the journals that publish a large share of the research in the field (such as Environmental Microbiology or ISME Journal); and by the fact that private foundations such as the Moore Foundation or the Auguron Institute have established funding programs targeting the field.
