The Ocean Microbiology team studies the ocean’s smallest inhabitants – the micro-organisms.
Ocean microbiology
Feature projects
Sewage contamination of beaches
A new research collaboration has used sophisticated DNA marker approaches to determine the primary cause of poor water quality at beaches.
Ocean warming breeds microscopic threat
Scientists from UTS and Charles Darwin University are joining forces under a new ARC Discovery Project to study the impacts of potentially dangerous underwater bacteria that like it hot.
Overview
Ocean microbes including viruses, bacteria, archaea and algae form the foundation of marine food-webs control the ocean’s chemical cycles and can both positively and negatively influence the health of marine animals and plants. Some pathogenic marine microbes threaten the viability of marine industries including aquaculture and fisheries, while others have significant human health impacts.
The principle goal of our team is to understand the ecology, diversity and function of marine microbes in order to define their influence on the health and status of ocean and coastal ecosystems.
We employ a diverse suite of cutting edge technologies spanning molecular microbiology, genomics, microfluidics and single-cell imaging to examine the ecological interactions of marine microbes from scales spanning individual cells to ocean-basins.
The outcomes of our research are directed towards developing a more complete understanding of marine ecosystem health and function along with a better perception of the impacts of aquatic microbes on human industries and health.
I lead the ocean microbiology team in C3 at UTS. Our research is focussed on studying the ocean's smallest inhabitants, the microorganisms. These microbes, which include bacteria, microalgae and viruses, play several important roles in the ocean. They form the base of the marine food web, which means that they're significant for things like fisheries yields, and they perform the bulk of chemical cycling processes in the ocean, and this can ultimately influence our climate.
While these microbes influence the ocean on global scales, the interactions take place in much, much smaller scales, which occupy only a fraction of an individual drop of sea water. To overcome this obstacle we've started applying new microscale techniques, such as microfluidics. Microfluidics involves the fabrication of very small chips on to which we can etch complex patterns and control microscale volumes of fluids.
With our collaborators at MIT we've designed a suite of these microfluidic chips, which allow us to manipulate the chemical environment experienced by these microbes and look at their behavioural responses in a patchy chemical seascape. Using these approaches are allowing us to begin to understand the ecology of microbes at the scales that are most relevant to them, and provide new insights into the way that the ocean functions.
What I value at UTS is that there's a large group of oceanographers and microbial ecologists studying areas that we're interested in. The impact of integrating new technologies such as microfluidics into this oceanographic research is allowing us, for the first time, to understand the roles of microbes at their scales of interaction in the ocean. This is providing us with a much better understanding of the way that the base of the marine food web operates.
Support Us
If your passion aligns with the Ocean Microbiology Group’s, there is opportunity to be involved.
Opportunities for Impact
Australia’s coastal ecosystems feature more than 10,000 beaches and 1,000 estuaries, which provide ecosystem services valued at over $895 billion. They host diverse communities of marine plants and animals and act as important nurseries for commercially important fish species. Our research targets some of the biggest issues facing Australia's coasts. We are dedicated to contributing new knowledge to guide on-ground management and protection of Australia’s marine environments.
Learn more about our research track record, and how you can help us make real research impact here:
Find out more
Contact
Professor Justin Seymour
Team Leader, Ocean Microbiology
Phone: +61 02 9514 1776
Email: Justin.Seymour@uts.edu.au
