Microbial ecology of ocean biogeochemistry: a community perspective

The oceans harbor a tremendous diversity of marine microbes. Different functional groups of bacteria, archaea, and protists arise from this diversity to dominate various habitats and drive globally important biogeochemical cycles. Explanations for the distribution of microbial taxa and their associated activity often focus on resource availability and abiotic conditions. However, the continual reshaping of communities by mortality, allelopathy, symbiosis, and other processes shows that community interactions exert strong selective pressure on marine microbes. Deeper exploration of microbial interactions is now possible via molecular prospecting and taxon-specific experimental approaches. A holistic outlook that encompasses the full array of selective pressures on individuals will help elucidate the maintenance of microbial diversity and the regulation of biogeochemical reactions by planktonic communities.