{"id":129181,"date":"2026-09-09T15:09:55","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T15:09:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/planetary-biology\/?page_id=129181"},"modified":"2026-09-10T07:57:53","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T07:57:53","slug":"adaptchem","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/planetary-biology\/projects\/adaptchem\/","title":{"rendered":"ADAPTCHEM"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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Adaptive capacity of marine microbial communities to anthropogenic chemicals<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

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Anthropogenic chemical pollution is an accelerating planetary-scale stressor that profoundly impacts marine ecosystems. Microbial communities mediate the fate of most environmental contaminants and are responsible for the planet\u2019s primary chemical-buffering capacity. Yet we lack a mechanistic understanding of how exposure, biodiversity, and evolutionary history shape microbial resilience to increasingly complex pollutant mixtures. This project integrates natural marine ecotron communities and large-scale chemical\u2013microbial interaction profiling to elucidate how marine microbes adapt to – and potentially mitigate – the impact of pesticide and pollutant mixtures. The results will deepen our insights into mechanistic planetary-scale biology by linking genetic and biochemical processes with community dynamics and ecosystem-level resilience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Figure 1. Experimental workflow showing adaptation of marine communities to pesticides, followed by cell abundance analysis, sequencing and LC\/MS-based pollutant degradation analysis. Image generated by ChatGPT.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Objectives<\/p>\n\n\n\n