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Nature Reviews Microbiology

In the ocean’s major oxygen minimum zones (OMZs), oxygen is effectively absent from sea water and life is dominated by microorganisms that use chemicals other than oxygen for respiration. Recent studies that combine advanced genomic and chemical detection methods are delineating the different metabolic niches that microorganisms can occupy in OMZs. Understanding these niches, the microorganisms that inhabit them, and their influence on marine biogeochemical cycles is crucial as OMZs expand with increasing seawater temperatures. Marine oxygen minimum zones are expanding globally as a result of rising temperatures. In this Progress article, Bertagnolli and Stewart describe the ecological and functional diversity of the microbial communities that inhabit these zones and their contribution to biogeochemical cycles.

Microbial niches in marine oxygen minimum zones