Chemical Insights into Earth’s Microbiomes

Liz Kujawinski
Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

ABSTRACT: Planet Earth is a microbial world, and the health of its inhabitants rests on microscopic organisms within oceans, rivers, soils and air. The oceans are fundamental to the life-sustaining capabilities of Planet Earth. Within the oceans, microbes make oxygen, remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, anchor the marine food web, fuel life within coral reefs, and promote health of fisheries and marine mammals. Detailed studies of microbial metabolism, therefore, provide fundamental knowledge about the life-sustaining processes on Earth. Metabolomics, or the study of biochemical molecules, is one lens through which the chemical capacity of microbes can be viewed. Kujawinski offers two case studies that use metabolomics to understand the chemical interplay of microbes. These case studies are linked by the theme of microbial metabolism and its sentinel roles in understanding critical processes on our planet and will highlight the continuing role of analytical chemistry in elucidating fundamental earth system functions.

(Presentation not available.)