Our Research Impacts

Biomolecular observation of marine biodiversity

Biomolecules such as DNA and RNA are present in all life from viruses to vertebrates and through sequencing can be used to assess biodiversity. We have utilised environmental DNA and RNA sequencing to observe marine biodiversity across a range of ecosystems including the deep open ocean, polar regions, coastal waters and sediments. Our sequencing approach can capture all marine biodiversity, encompassing microbes, meiofauna and macrofauna. Recent examples of our work include showing latitudinal variation in the activity of Atlantic Ocean bacterioplankton (Allen et al 2023 Front. Mar. Sci.) and long-term patterns in coastal marine fungal diversity (Chrismas et al 2023 Proc. R. Soc. B.). As well as leading in this area, we are part of multiple international research networks developing and applying biomolecular marine observation. These science networks have set priorities for understanding and protecting the global ocean microbiome (Tara Ocean Foundation et al 2022 Nature Microbiology), developed multiomics approaches to be applied in the central Arctic Ocean to benchmark biodiversity change (Mock et al 2022 PloS Biology) and formed strategic biodiversity networks to implement omics-based approaches in ocean observation including applying FAIR data standards (Santi et al 2023 Front. Mar. Sci.). 

Living together – unravelling the mechanisms and impacts of microbial interactions

A substantial area of research activity has been on marine microbiomes and associated interactions, studying systems both in natura and in the laboratory, both between microbes and microbes with other organisms. We have characterized the interacting microbiomes of a range of marine organisms living in marine ecosystems including seaweeds (Bonthond et al 2022), lichens (Christmas et al 2021 JMBA) and polychaete worms (Dale et al 2019 FEMS Micro. Eco.). In the laboratory, we isolated a novel thraustochytrid parasite and associated host diatom and showed that the parasite targets ageing diatom cells in a similar way to selective animal predation on weaker prey individuals. Targeting of unhealthy cells improves the overall health of the diatom population, providing support for ‘healthy herd’ dynamics in a microbe-microbe interaction, a phenomenon typically associated with animal predators and their prey (Laundon et al 2021 ISME Journal).