FSU’s Olivia Mason studies how microbes react to disruptions in the marine environment, such as oil spills and areas with decreasing oxygen concentrations—or oxygen minimum zones. Marine microbes such as bacteria and archaea are involved in nearly all marine biogeochemical cycles and are crucial to ecosystem function.

As microbes change in response to environmental disturbances, their role in the ecosystem is affected. This can have cascading effects on marine health and the food chain. “With factors like rising ocean temperatures, OMZs are expanding exponentially,” says Mason. “My research allows us to understand how microbes respond to ecosystem perturbations like OMZs so we can understand the full effects these changes have on the ecosystem.”

• Olivia Mason