Meeting Abstract
Teaching undergraduate marine biology majors about marine microbes can be a disappointing experience because their interests too often focus on marine megafauna. Furthermore, textbooks on marine biology minimally support the subject. Marine microbes comprise one-third of my semester course taught to seniors. Although my lectures are organized phylogenetically (viruses, eubacteria, archaeons, stramenopiles [except brown algae], haptophytes, alveolates, filose amoebae, choanoflagellates, ascomycotes), major themes on the biology and ecology of marine microbes help to unify the subject: the origin of life in the seas, metabolic diversity, effectors of global climate change and extinctions, marine diseases, among others. Relevance to student interests is maintained by tying marine microbes to food chains and diseases of megafauna, fisheries, and aquaculture organisms. Scientific importance of marine microbes is emphasized by use of recent primary and review papers as required readings to supplement the textbook. PowerPoint-based lectures are sprinkled with frames titled “Marine Biology in the News”, which report recent developments about marine microbes from Sigma Xi SmartBrief and other current science news sources. Lectures also are laced with “amazing facts” on largest, smallest, most abundant, firsts, weirdest, etc. The roles of marine microbes in the sea are emphasized again in later lectures on macroalgae, marine vascular plants, metazoan plankton, and marine tetrapods. Over the years, complaints about coverage of marine microbes on end-course evaluations have greatly decreased, and attendance has remained high. Production of a few career marine microbiologists among alumni adds to my reward.
