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The ocean represents the largest continuous planetary ecosystem, hosting an enormous variety of organisms, which include microscopic biota such as unicellular eukaryotes (protists). Despite their small size, protists play key roles in marine biogeochemical cycles and harbour tremendous evolutionary diversity.
Marine microorganisms are defined by their habitat as microorganisms living in a marine environment, that is, in the saltwater of a sea or ocean or the brackish water of a coastal estuary. A microorganism (or microbe) is any microscopic living organism or virus, which is invisibly small to the unaided human eye without magnification ...
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Danielle Hall. Reviewed by Alyson Santoro and Sarah Laperriere, UC Santa Barbara. Invisible to the naked eye, there is a teeming world of microbes living in the ocean with a complexity and diversity that rivals all other life on Earth. They include bacteria, viruses, archaea, protists, and fungi.
- Background
- Foundations of Productive Ecosystems
- Reproduction and Host Development
- Biofouling and Microbial Community Assembly
- Biogeochemical Cycling
- Examples
- Marine Holobionts
- Further References
Within the vast biological diversity that inhabits the world's oceans, it would be challenging to find a eukaryotic organism that does not live in close relationship with a microbial partner. Such symbioses, i.e., persistent interactions between host and microbe in which none of the partners gets harmed and at least one of them benefits, are ubiqui...
Ecosystem engineers, such as many types of corals, deep-sea mussels, and hydrothermal vent tubeworms, contribute to primary productivity and create the structural habitats and nutrient resources that are the foundation of their respective ecosystems. All of these taxa engage in mutualistic nutritional symbioses with microbes. There are many example...
Extending beyond nutritional symbioses, microbial symbionts can alter the reproduction, development, and growth of their hosts. Specific bacterial strains in marine biofilms often directly control the recruitment of planktonic larvae and propagules, either by inhibiting settlement or by serving as a settlement cue. For example, the settlement of zo...
Some host-associated microbes produce compounds that prevent biofouling and regulate microbiome assembly and maintenance in many marine organisms, including sponges, macroalgae, and corals. For example, tropical corals harbor diverse bacteria in their surface mucus layer that produce quorum-sensing inhibitors and other antibacterial compounds as a ...
Host-associated microbiomes also influence biogeochemical cycling within ecosystems with cascading effects on biodiversity and ecosystem processes. For example, microbial symbionts comprise up to 40% of the biomass of their sponge hosts. Through a process termed the "sponge-loop," they convert dissolved organic carbon released by reef organisms int...
The microbiomes of diverse marine animals are currently under study, from simplistic organisms including sponges and ctenophores to more complex organisms such as sea squirtsand sharks. The relationship between the Hawaiian bobtail squid and the bioluminescent bacterium Aliivibrio fischeriis one of the best studied symbiotic relationships in the se...
Reef-building corals are holobionts that include the coral itself (a eukaryotic invertebrate within class Anthozoa), photosynthetic dinoflagellates called zooxanthellae (Symbiodinium), and associated bacteria and viruses.Co-evolutionary patterns exist for coral microbial communities and coral phylogeny. 1. Coral holobiont 2. Seagrass holobiont 3. S...
Stal, L. J. and Cretoiu, M. S. (Eds.) (2016) The marine microbiome: an untapped source of biodiversity and biotechnological potential Springer. ISBN 9783319330006.Marine Microbiome and Biogeochemical Cycles in Marine Productive Areas. Frontiers Media S.A. 2020. ISBN 978-2-88963-276-3. OCLC 1291256407.Feb 28, 2022 · Here, we review marine protists, their evolutionary histories, diversity, ecological roles, and lifestyles in all layers of the ocean, with reference to how views have shifted over time through extensive investigation.
Province/Territory. Share on: The ocean is full of very small but very useful creatures called microbes. Without them, none of the sea plants or animals you’ve seen would exist! "Microbes" is another name for microorganisms. They are tiny living things. They’re too small for people to see with just their eyes. But they’re there!
Nov 21, 2016 · Protists, which are single-celled eukaryotes, critically influence the ecology and chemistry of marine ecosystems, but genome-based studies of these organisms have lagged behind those of other...
