Séminaire MIO : Maurizio Ribera d'Alcalà inviendra sur le thème "The ocean microbiome in the context of seascape."

Jeudi 14 décembre 2023 - 13h00-14h30

Amphithéâtre du MIO. Bâtiment Oceanomed, Luminy

Maurizio Ribera d'Alcalà

Research Director at SZN. Appointed Professor of Biological Oceanography at the University of Naples 'Parthenope'.
Department of Integrative Marine Ecology
Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn
Villa Comunale, 80121 Napoli – Italy

Titre de la présentation: The ocean microbiome in the context of seascape.

Abstract : Microscopic organisms are the dominant component of the pelagic realm which has recently prompted the introduction of the term 'ocean microbiome'. Its composition includes most of the phyla living on the planet with their enormous range of evolutionary histories and phylogenetic diversity. However, they coexist in the same, relatively similar environment, the water column. Comparing the remarkable differences among terrestrial environments, e.g., temperature, water and nutrient availability, wind fields which drive, together with sun light fluxes, the large scale pattern of terrestrial landscapes, the differences among oceanic regions, besides the light, are apparently smoother, which raises several long lasting questions, such as the existence of a biogeography or if the observed plankton diversity is really paradoxical. By analogy with Landscape the term Seascape has initially been used to characterize benthic environments which share many similarities with terrestrial environments. More recently Seascape has been used also to describe to unique traits of pelagic environment where most of the processes are modulated by the multiscale dynamics of the fluid. While several aspects of the physical-biological coupling in the pelagial have long been covered in textbooks, the implications for organism interactions, adaptive constraints, community structure and evolutionary processes, among other aspects, have been enriched by the enormous information made available by modern bio-physical and molecular observations. A few intriguing issues, e.g., species-species interactions, food web structure, phytoplankton richness, emergent neutrality in community structure, will be presented as a stimulus for discussion.