Effects of climate change on polar microbes

Abstract

It is a glaring fact that climate, and in particular global warming and associated climate change, is having a major impact on life on Earth, and will continue to do so into the forseeable future. The photographs of starving polar bears swimming between broken slabs of melting sea ice in search of food, and Great Barrier Reef coral destroyed by bleaching and cyclonic winds (e.g. Cyclone Hamish down the Great Barrier Reef in 2009), provide graphic and worrying images that clearly document the consequences of human activity. However, what is far less easy to see (quite literally), is complex to interpret, and has worrying consequences for all other life forms on the planet, is the impact climate change is having on microorganisms.