Page 104 - University of Pretoria Research Review 2017
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 Mesocosms to shed light on microbial dark matter
Thulani Makhalanyane, Centre for Microbial Ecology and Genomics
 Since 2016, Dr Thulani Makhalanyane and members of his team at the Centre for Microbial Ecology and Genomics have initiated a series of programmes on marine microbial ecology.
Funded by the National Research Foundation’s South African National Antarctic Programme (SANAP), the studies aim to elucidate the role of ‘microbial dark matter’ in the Southern Ocean, and to determine
the role played by microbial communities in carbon sequestration.
Dr Makhalanyane and his team use culture- independent approaches and are testing the effect of environmental perturbations on microbial communities by using field studies and mesocosm simulations. Mesocosms are valuable experimental systems
which provide a crucial link between field studies and controlled laboratory-based experiments. While field studies have provided important insights into microbial community interactions and functionality, such studies represent results from single timepoints (i.e. snapshots)
and cannot provide insights into responses to environmental perturbations. In contrast, microcosms may provide important information on community responses to several environmental stressors such
as temperature increases across various ecosystems including, for instance, the effects of ocean acidification on marine organisms.
CMEG researchers published papers on both aspects in 2017, the first on microbial community interactions in Environmental Microbiology, and the second on microbial functionality in Frontiers in Microbiology.
By testing the response of microbial communities to environmental stressors, the team aims to contribute to current monitoring efforts in the Southern Ocean, which have largely ignored the role of marine dark matter. Ultimately, the data from this project may be applied
in Earth System Models, which attempt to elucidate the role of marine dark matter in the Southern Ocean in a global context.
 





















































































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