Over the last several decades, the fields of algal-bacterial interactions and aquatic
microbial biology in general have been carried out primarily by academics for the
sake of gaining fundamental scientific knowledge about our natural world. As such,
this research has been sponsored by funding agencies that target basic science. In the
United States, this is primarily the National Science Foundation, funded by the US
government, as well as several philanthropic nonprofit organizations that have
noticed this type of research was underfunded, with examples being the Gordon
and Betty Moore Foundation and the Simons Foundation. Since microbes play such
a central role in the carbon cycle which is undeniably affected by anthropogenically
caused climate change, I would argue that we have left behind aquatic microbiology
research as a purely academic exercise reserved for basic research. I suggest that
climate change and our earth’s response to it should now be considered in the realm
of applied research and that government agencies should focus upon this area of
research. Historically, national laboratories have taken the lead in addressing issues
of national interests, such as the development of nuclear weapons, sequencing of the
human genome, and atmospheric modeling for weather prediction. It would seem
logical that the ocean’s response to climate change would be something that is
crucial to the US national security interests and that government laboratories should
become involved with this work. Several decades ago, in fact, the US Department of
Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science was a major funder to oceanographic research.
For example, the Food Chain Research Group at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, California, where the “microbial loop” mentioned above was
discovered (Azam et al. 1983), was DOE funded. Today, the DOE does not fund
marine biogeochemical research unless it is directly relevant to applied energy
production, such as algal biofuels. In addition, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), whose mission is “ to understand and predict
changes in climate, weather, oceans, and coasts. . .,” also does not fund microbial
oceanography research, except when related to harmful algal blooms. As climate
change continues to impact our planet over the next decades, the hope is that these
US government agencies will find it in our national and international interest to work
together and fund ocean microbial biogeochemistry research. Perhaps the issue is
that the oceans do not belong to any nation (past the 12 nautical mile near the coast),
and so no nation wants to take ownership of the problem. Global research issues
need to be addressed by multinational efforts. The issue of ocean plastics exemplifies
this unfortunate outlook leading to such “tragedy of the commons,” in this case the
Great Pacific Garbage patch that no single country can be blamed for. At the very
least, we should be funding aquatic biogeochemical research at the same rate as
terrestrial research, since they are each responsible for half of the O 2 production
globally.
Acknowledgments Funding provided by the Department of Energy’s Genomic Sciences Program
Bioenergy Science Focus Area grant # SCW1039 under the auspices of the U.S. Department of
Energy at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344.
13 Microscale Carbon Cycling Between Bacteria and Algae Under the Sun
209
microbial biology in general have been carried out primarily by academics for the
sake of gaining fundamental scientific knowledge about our natural world. As such,
this research has been sponsored by funding agencies that target basic science. In the
United States, this is primarily the National Science Foundation, funded by the US
government, as well as several philanthropic nonprofit organizations that have
noticed this type of research was underfunded, with examples being the Gordon
and Betty Moore Foundation and the Simons Foundation. Since microbes play such
a central role in the carbon cycle which is undeniably affected by anthropogenically
caused climate change, I would argue that we have left behind aquatic microbiology
research as a purely academic exercise reserved for basic research. I suggest that
climate change and our earth’s response to it should now be considered in the realm
of applied research and that government agencies should focus upon this area of
research. Historically, national laboratories have taken the lead in addressing issues
of national interests, such as the development of nuclear weapons, sequencing of the
human genome, and atmospheric modeling for weather prediction. It would seem
logical that the ocean’s response to climate change would be something that is
crucial to the US national security interests and that government laboratories should
become involved with this work. Several decades ago, in fact, the US Department of
Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science was a major funder to oceanographic research.
For example, the Food Chain Research Group at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, California, where the “microbial loop” mentioned above was
discovered (Azam et al. 1983), was DOE funded. Today, the DOE does not fund
marine biogeochemical research unless it is directly relevant to applied energy
production, such as algal biofuels. In addition, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), whose mission is “ to understand and predict
changes in climate, weather, oceans, and coasts. . .,” also does not fund microbial
oceanography research, except when related to harmful algal blooms. As climate
change continues to impact our planet over the next decades, the hope is that these
US government agencies will find it in our national and international interest to work
together and fund ocean microbial biogeochemistry research. Perhaps the issue is
that the oceans do not belong to any nation (past the 12 nautical mile near the coast),
and so no nation wants to take ownership of the problem. Global research issues
need to be addressed by multinational efforts. The issue of ocean plastics exemplifies
this unfortunate outlook leading to such “tragedy of the commons,” in this case the
Great Pacific Garbage patch that no single country can be blamed for. At the very
least, we should be funding aquatic biogeochemical research at the same rate as
terrestrial research, since they are each responsible for half of the O 2 production
globally.
Acknowledgments Funding provided by the Department of Energy’s Genomic Sciences Program
Bioenergy Science Focus Area grant # SCW1039 under the auspices of the U.S. Department of
Energy at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344.
13 Microscale Carbon Cycling Between Bacteria and Algae Under the Sun
209