Responses of Marine Microbes to Multiple Environmental Drivers of Global Change: the Interplay of Abiotic and Biotic Factors

Climate change and other anthropogenic pressures have led to the ongoing ocean global change, including ocean acidification, sea surface warming, deoxygenation, and changes in nutrient and light regimes. These changes simultaneously alter multiple chemical and physical seawater properties of marine ecosystems, which propagate to diverse marine microorganisms inhabiting these environments. On the other hand, the changes in marine microbial communities provide feedbacks to the environment via diverse metabolic activities, further modulate the dwelling environments, and ultimately influence the global climate. It is noteworthy that the changes in various environmental drivers in the marine environment tend to occur simultaneously and thus have complex mulplicative effects on marine ecosystems. In order to make more precise projections of the ecological consequences of global ocean change, it is essential to elucidate the biological responses to a complex matrix of environmental changes.

Marine microbial communities, particularly phytoplankton, are the first responders of these complex environmental changes. As the "driving engine" of the ocean, marine phytoplankton have direct impacts on the marine food web, and changes in their abundances and distribution shape the community dynamics of diverse marine heterotrophs and viruses, as well as protistan grazers and larger animals. On the contrary, the carbon and energy flow of the marine food web can be redirected to the primary producers via the microbial loop or the viral shunt by heterotrophs and viruses.

The scope of this Research Topic is to cover the most recent advances in our understanding of the physiological and molecular responses of marine microbes to the cumulative effects of multiple environmental drivers of the concurrent global ocean change, the interactions between marine phytoplankton and diverse heterotrophs and viruses, as well as contributions of marine microbes to the marine biogeochemical cycles under these environmental changes in different marine habitats.

Authors are invited to submit both original research articles and reviews related to this Research Topic. The scientific questions/topics may include but not limited to:
- The physiological responses of marine microbes to the interplay of multiple environmental drivers of ocean global change and the underlying molecular mechanisms;
- The interactions of marine phytoplankton and diverse heterotrophs or viruses, and their contribution to the biogeochemical cycles;
- The microbial responses to environmental changes in marine sediments;
- Prediction of the impacts of multiple environmental drivers on the marine microbial communities and the related marine biogeochemistry under the framework of global change.