Discussion
Marine Microbiology: Ecology & Applications: Fourth Edition by Colin Munn et al, 2026
The fourth edition of this bestselling text has been rigorously updated to reflect major new discoveries and concepts since 2019. This new edition reflects important new findings in marine microbiology revealed by development of high-throughput sequencing, meta-omics, and single-cell technologies, and the ability to analyse and interpret large datasets.
"When we think of the #ocean, we might think of whales, waves, dolphins, fish, the smell of the sea, its blue colour, and its vastness; most of us would not look out at the sea and think of marine microbes, nor did marine scientists for over a century. They sailed the seas and strenuously dragged plankton nets through the ocean’s pelagic zone to capture what they judged would represent the marine biota.
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Farooq Azam, 2011
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"But they were unaware that the great majority of the #biota, perhaps 99%, easily streamed through the holes of their nets; the holes were simply too big to capture these microbes. Even when membrane flters and microscopy were used, and they revealed great diversity of #microplankton and #nanoplankton, most #microbes evaded detection. The view of the pelagic web of life that emerged and became entrenched for a century was then based on a tiny fraction of marine biota."
Farooq Azam, 2011
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