Quantifying the impacts of environmental stress on marine microorganisms

微生物是海洋生态系统健康的基础，但人们对它们将如何应对不同的环境压力的了解有限。该项目将通过开发一个独特的分子平台来解决这一关键的知识鸿沟，以求出栖息在关键珊瑚礁栖息地(海水、沉积物、无脊椎动物)的微生物群落的定量压力阈值。量化珊瑚礁微生物如何对广泛的环境扰动(温度、营养物质、污染物)作出反应，将产生压力反应数据，这些数据可与真核数据一起纳入环境评估，大大提高风险和脆弱性评估的生态相关性和可靠性。

Microorganisms underpin marine ecosystem health, yet there is limited understanding of how they will respond to different environmental pressures. This project will resolve this critical knowledge gap by developing a unique molecular platform for deriving quantitative stress thresholds for microbial communities inhabiting key reef habitats (seawater, sediments, invertebrates). Quantifying how reef microorganisms respond to a broad suite of environmental perturbations (temperature, nutrients, contaminants), will generate stress-response data that can be incorporated alongside eukaryotic data in environmental assessments, greatly improving the ecological relevance and reliability of risk and vulnerability assessments.