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What do we still need to find out?

There is still much to find out. We know more about life on land than any other environment and NERC scientists are increasing knowledge of life at the poles, in oceans and rivers, in clouds and deep in rocks. But we know very little about microscopic life but bacteria and fungi, invisible to the naked eye, keep many ecosystems functioning.

Micro-organisms keep soils fertile, and detoxify pesticides and other pollutants. In terms of weight, microbes are the single most abundant form of life on this planet. We need to know more about their abundance, their diversity, and how they keep the Earth habitable.

Two major NERC research programmes that addressed microbial biodiversity.

Soil Biodiversity

"I suspect we know more about the biodiversity of this one field at Sourhope than any other soil on this planet," said Professor Michael Usher, the chairman of the Soil Biodiversity Programme steering committee.

Programme highlights

  • The seven-year study was the largest of its kind in the world.

  • We now have a better understanding of how fungi, springtails, mites, earthworms, slugs and beetles help create the structure of soil.

  • The programme has increased knowledge of how soil organisms break down pollutants, recycle nutrients and consume trace gases that regulate climate.

  • We now know more about soil biodiversity and the carbon cycle - a key to understanding climate change. For example, we now know that carbon taken in by plants as carbon dioxide is rapidly transferred, within hours, to the soil as food for other organisms.

Marine & Freshwater Microbial Biodiversity

Programme highlights

  • The team discovered a chemically-unique antibiotic that has properties which could be used to inhibit the super-bug, MRSA.

  • The oceans are filled with viruses that infect marine organisms. Scientists discovered that some of the oxygen we breathe is a by-product of a viral infection. They looked at how viruses close to the sea surface affect the tiny floating plants that help drive environmental processes. Researchers found that as the virus multiplies and the host dies, the virus's genetic code forces the plants to produce key proteins to keep photosynthesis going, which in turn produces more oxygen.

  • Viruses influence our climate. The team established a firm link between the death of marine algal blooms caused by viruses and the release of dimethyl sulphide, a compound that that helps clouds form.

  • The researchers made breakthroughs in the process of finding new bioactive compounds. A combination of scientific expertise and vastly efficient new techniques to screen the bacteria for compounds that have pharmaceutical properties, has led to a ten-fold increase in the screening success rates.

  • Bacteria that grow together as biofilms behave very differently from single cells. In natural conditions bacteria form a society. To defend their colony against invaders they release chemicals that inhibit or kill rival bacteria. But when grown as widely separated cells in a shake-flask, the bacteria don't 'talk' to each other and no bioactive compounds (that might be developed as antibiotic drugs) are produced. This result has major implications for the drug-discovery programmes of the pharmaceutical industry.

  • BlueMicrobe is the network set up to use information from this programme.

Photograph: Algal bloom in the English Channel

Photograph: Algal bloom in the English Channel