Massive study of ocean microbes to help predict climate change impact

Extract from ABC News

ABC Newcastle

By Ben Millington

Posted yesterday at 4:43pm

Photo: Microbes make up 98 per cent of the ocean's biomass and produce 50 per cent of the world's oxygen. (Supplied: University of Newcastle)

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Scientists say a new database of the marine microbes in Australia's oceans will help better predict the impact of climate change on marine life.

A six-year survey recorded 175,000 different types of microbes, providing an unprecedented snapshot of the smallest organisms in the ocean.
Dr Mark Brown from the University of Newcastle said microbes such as phytoplankton and bacteria form the basis of the ocean's food chain and produce 50 per cent of the world's oxygen.
He said the new data will allow scientists to monitor changes in the ocean's microbial makeup, acting as a "canary in the coalmine" in the face of global warming.

"Because these organisms are so sensitive to environmental change they'll be the first responders to anything in the environment that gets out of kilter," he said.

"The models that climate change scientists use are really good at determining how the ocean will change in the future, but what they don't do currently is predict which organisms it will support and so this is what we're trying to do."

Photo: Employing filtration methods similar to those used to purify drinking water, scientists recorded 175,000 different types of ocean microbe. (Supplied: University of Newcastle)

Dr Brown said that changes to the ocean's microbes could have a significant impact on all types of marine life further up the food chain, and the new data will help scientists better predict those outcomes.
He said changes to marine microbes had already been observed.
"The microbes off the coast of Tasmania are looking like they're starting to change and become more like the microbes off Sydney or Newcastle," he said.

"The microbes don't really care, any change in the environment is going to be fine for them.

"But in terms of humans and animals as we know them, it's really going to be a beneficial thing to know when we're really damaging an environment from the very start."
Dr Brown said that changes to the ocean's microbes could also have an impact on Australia's weather.
"Microbes also generate sulphur compounds which form clouds once they're released to the environment, so they can actually generate more clouds, so these are the big climatic things that microbes can do," he said.
More than 100 scientists and 18 institutions have been involved in collecting and analysing microbe samples using new technology to scan a DNA blueprint of the microbes.
Samples for the project were collected from seven sites including Darwin, Brisbane, Tasmania, North Queensland, Adelaide, Perth and Sydney.
The team is now building models to predict where organisms will live in the future.

Photo: Dr Mark Brown from the University of Newcastle and Dr Martin Ostrowski from Macquarie University. (Supplied: Newcastle University)