Home › Microbiology › Unraveling the Unseen Players in the Ocean - A Field Guide to Water Chemistry and Marine Microbiology
Microbiology JoVE (Open Access) Citable · DOI

Unraveling the Unseen Players in the Ocean - A Field Guide to Water Chemistry and Marine Microbiology

DOI: 10.3791/52131-v
What you'll learn
  • ✓ Prepare marine water samples for nutrient and chemistry analysis
  • ✓ Assess microbial and viral community structure using microscopy and flow cytometry
  • ✓ Characterize organic and inorganic nutrient availability in remote marine environments
Protocol

Here, we present a comprehensive protocol to assess the organic and inorganic nutrient availability and the abundance and structure of microbial and viral communities in remote marine environments.

Difficulty
advanced
Total time
~4–6 hours per sampling site (field collection ~2 hrs; lab processing ~2–4 hrs)
Biosafety
BSL-1

Steps

1
Prepare water samples for chemistry analysis

Process collected marine water samples and prepare them for assessment of organic and inorganic nutrient parameters. This establishes baseline chemical data for the sampled environment.

▶ 01:39
2
Prepare samples for microscopy and flow cytometry

Prepare marine water samples for direct visualization and quantification of microbial cells using microscopy and flow cytometry techniques to assess community abundance.

▶ 04:09
3
Prepare samples for microbial and viral analyses

Process water samples for downstream molecular and culture-based analyses to characterize the structure and diversity of microbial and viral communities in the marine environment.

▶ 05:35
4
Analyze microbial and viral community results

Review and interpret results from microbial and viral community assessments conducted on remote marine water samples to identify key players and community structure patterns.

▶ 08:37
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