Microscale Experiments to Understand a Microscale World

Microorganisms control the productivity and biogeochemical status of the ocean at global scales. Yet the physiological and behavioral interactions that underpin these large-scale processes occur at the microscale. To date the oceans’ microscale remains a largely uncharted frontier in microbial oceanography. We apply a series of novel microfluidic platforms that will grant us previously unattainable access to the microscale and allows us to explore the spatiotemporal scales which are most relevant to microbial processes and interactions in the sea. This international collaboration involves research institutions from three continents. This combined data will be made available to the public. Our microscale experiments will provide exciting new viewpoints for understanding the roles and influence of microbes in the ocean, based on the field experiments conducted here in Australia. The data from this cutting edge research project will be used for several high profile publications, which will reference this data. Institutions involved are: the Australian Centre for Ecogenomics,The University of Queensland, Brisbane; UTS, Sydney; MIT, USA; ETH Zurich, Switzerland. Most data will be made freely available, with only some data to be embargoed for a specified period. Data is fully described in the accompanying documentation.