Center for Microbial Oceanography: Research and Education (C-MORE)

地球上一半以上的生物量是由微生物组成的：细菌、古生菌、原生生物、真菌、单细胞藻类和病毒。它们是地球上最丰富和最多样化的生命形式，是全球碳、氮和磷循环的首席工程师。矛盾的是，微生物也是我们所知最少的生命形式。环境基因组学和高性能计算的惊人进步现在使研究人员能够破译整个微生物群落的遗传密码。再加上自动化遥控潜水器技术的进步，这将使部署基因组传感器以前所未有的分辨率检查地球上微生物的特性和活动成为可能。总部设在夏威夷大学(UH)的微生物海洋学研究和教育中心(C-MORE)将汇集一个由科学家和教育工作者组成的多学科团队，专注于世界上最大的生物群--海洋中微生物的身份、作用和影响。该中心将有四个研究重点：i)微生物多样性的基因组、生理和其他方面；ii)微生物新陈代谢在元素循环中的作用；iii)开发和部署用于远程自动采样和处理的新型传感器和仪器；以及iv)生态系统过程的计算机模拟、建模和预测。海洋学、微生物学、基因组学、地球化学、信息学和计算方法将是通过团队研究北太平洋副热带环流将这些焦点相互结合起来的手段。其结果将是第一个控制海洋中能量和元素流动的相互依赖的微生物生活方式和过程的高分辨率图像。C-MORE将把四个研究主题及其目标与各种不同的教育和外展活动结合起来，面向所有年龄段的学生。该中心将加快推进教师、学生和博士后科学家之间的跨学科合作，以培养新型微生物海洋学家，并将帮助培训教师和制定本科和中学教育水平的课程。这些活动的实施还旨在增加从事定量科学和工程的学生和教师的数量，重点关注科学中代表性较低的群体，特别是夏威夷原住民和其他太平洋岛国。该中心将由一个由四名海洋微生物生态学家组成的团队领导：大卫·卡尔、萨莉·奇泽姆、爱德华·德隆和乔纳森·泽尔。另外14名科学家和教育工作者将成为合作者，涵盖海洋学的生物学、物理学、地球化学和工程学方面，以及微生物学的基因组、生理和生态学方面。除密歇根州立大学外，联合PI和合作者还代表其他五个机构(麻省理工学院、蒙特利湾水族馆研究所、俄勒冈州立大学、加州大学圣克鲁斯分校和伍兹霍尔海洋研究所)。该中心的巩固努力将极大地加速推动微生物海洋学的研究。自动化的远程和现场采样和传感平台，再加上数学建模，将为未来的微生物观测系统网络提供模板。这些将提供科学和社会理解和管理我们不断变化的地球系统所需的信息。

More than half the biomass on Earth is made up of microorganisms: bacteria, archaea, protists, fungi, unicellular algae and viruses. They are the most abundant and diverse forms of life on our planet and are the chief engineers of the global carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus cycles. Paradoxically, microbes are also the life forms about which we know the least. Startling advances in environmental genomics and high performance computing are now enabling researchers to decipher the genetic code of entire communities of microorganisms. When coupled with advances in automated remote-controlled submersible technologies, this will make possible the deployment of genomic sensors to examine, with unprecedented resolving power, the properties and activities of microorganisms on our planet. The Center of Microbial Oceanography Research and Education (C-MORE) headquartered at the University of Hawaii (UH) will bring together a multidisciplinary team of scientists and educators to focus on the identities, roles and impacts of microorganisms in the world's largest biome: the ocean. The center is to have four research foci: i) genomic, physiological and other aspects of microbial diversity; ii) the role of microbial metabolism in elemental cycling; iii) development and deployment of novel sensors and instruments for remote automated sampling and processing; and iv) computer simulation, modeling and forecasting of ecosystem processes. Oceanographic, microbiological, genomic, geochemical, informatic and computational methods will be the means through which these foci are integrated with one another via team studies of the North Pacific subtropical gyre. The result will be the first high resolution view of inter-dependent microbial lifestyles and processes that govern the flow of energy and elements in the ocean. C-MORE will integrate the four research themes and their objectives with a varied and diverse portfolio of education and outreach activities for students of all ages. The Center will push interdisciplinary collaboration between faculty, students and postdoctoral scientists in an accelerated fashion to train a new breed of microbial oceanographer, and will help to train teachers and develop curricula at the undergraduate and secondary education levels. Implementation of these activities is also designed to increase the number of students and teachers engaged in quantitative sciences and engineering, focusing on underrepresented groups in science, especially Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders.The center will be led by a team of four marine microbial ecologists: David Karl, Sallie Chisholm, Edward DeLong and Jonathan Zehr. Another fourteen scientists and educators will be collaborators, covering biological, physical, geochemical and engineering aspects of oceanography as well as genomic, physiological and ecological aspects of microbiology. In addition to UH, co-PIs and collaborators represent five other institutions (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, Oregon State University, University of California Santa Cruz and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution). The consolidated efforts of the Center will drive research in microbial oceanography forward at a vastly accelerated rate. Automated remote and in situ sampling and sensing platforms, coupled with mathematical modeling will provide a template for future networks of microbial observing systems. These will provide the sort of information that science and society require to understand and manage our changing Earth system.