Host-associated microbiomes and their roles in marine ecosystem functions
- Published
- Accepted
- Subject Areas
- Biodiversity, Ecology, Evolutionary Studies, Marine Biology
- Keywords
- Symbiosis, Microbiome, Ecosystem functions, Global change, Conservation, Evolution, Beneficial, Host, Marine
- Copyright
- © 2019 Wilkins et al.
- Licence
- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
- Cite this article
- 2019. Host-associated microbiomes and their roles in marine ecosystem functions. PeerJ Preprints 7:e27930v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.27930v1
Abstract
The significance of mutualisms between eukaryotic hosts and microbes extends from the organismal to the ecosystem level, and mutualistic symbioses underpin the health of Earth’s most threatened marine ecosystems. Despite rapid growth in research on host-associated microbes (microbiomes), very little is known about their interactions for the vast majority of marine host species. We outline research priorities to broaden our current knowledge of host-microbiome interactions and how they shape marine ecosystems. We argue that this research frontier will allow us to predict responses of species, communities, and ecosystems to stressors driven by human activity, and inform future management and mitigation.
Author Comment
This is a preprint submission to PeerJ Preprints of a manuscript that is currently under review elsewhere.