2010 Marine Microbe Gordon Research Conference

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Intellectual Merit This award will partially support the meeting and travel expenses for participants in the 2010 Marine Microbe Gordon Research Conference (GRC). This GRC series was started in 2002 in recognition of the huge importance of marine microbes in the ecology and biogeochemistry of the biosphere. These microbes include representatives from all three kingdoms of life and collectively carry out virtually all forms of metabolisms found on the planet. Consequently, marine microbes mediate many of the reactions making up global biogeochemical cycles which govern the flow of energy and material in the biosphere. The goal of this conference is to integrate the various scales of investigations now being carried out by microbial oceanographers, microbial ecologists, and ecosystem ecologists. Integration of approaches and of scales of investigations, from genes to gyres and from lakes to the oceans, will be powerful in understanding microbes and their contribution to the carbon cycle and other biogeochemical processes. The conference should help to enlarge the community of microbial ecologists, to point to future research directions, and to inspire students, new and old, in the study of microbes and microbial processes. The funds provided here are crucial for ensuring the success of this conference. This GRC is highly relevant to the interests of NSF Biological Oceanography because of its support of many research projects directly examining marine microbes, i.e. viruses, bacteria, archaea, phytoplankton, protozoa and other protists. It is also highly relevant to the Division of Environmental Biology, specifically the Ecosystem Science Cluster. Several of the invited speakers do not work primarily in marine systems or with marine microbes. The exchange between freshwater ecosystem science represented by these speakers and marine scientists is highly likely to be beneficial to both communities, including both marine and non-marine LTER site investigators. Broader Impacts This conference will greatly aid the education of graduate students and postdocs in microbial ecology, microbial oceanography, and ecosystem ecology. GRC meetings such as this one are excellent opportunities for students and other young scientists to meet the leaders in the field and to network with them and with peers in a relaxed atmosphere. Part of the requested funds will directly cover some of the meeting expenses of students and postdocs beginning in the field.