Microbiologia, Departament de Biologia, Universitat de les Illes Balears, Palma de Mallorca, Spain.
FEMS Microbiol Rev. 2011 Mar;35(2):275-98. doi: 10.1111/j.1574-6976.2010.00248.x.
Human activities impact marine ecosystems at a global scale and all levels of complexity of life. Despite their importance as key players in ecosystem processes, the stress caused to microorganisms has been greatly neglected. This fact is aggravated by difficulties in the analysis of microbial communities and their high diversity, making the definition of patterns difficult. In this review, we discuss the effects of nutrient increase, pollution by organic chemicals and heavy metals and the introduction of antibiotics and pathogens into the environment. Microbial communities respond positively to nutrients and chemical pollution by increasing cell numbers. There are also significant changes in community composition, increases in diversity and high temporal variability. These changes, which evidence the modification of the environmental conditions due to anthropogenic stress, usually alter community functionality, although this aspect has not been explored in depth. Altered microbial communities in human-impacted marine environments can in turn have detrimental effects on human health (i.e. spread of pathogens and antibiotic resistance). New threats to marine ecosystems, i.e. related to climate change, could also have an impact on microbial communities. Therefore, an effort dedicated to analyse the microbial compartment in detail should be made when studying the impact of anthropogenic activities on marine ecosystems.
人类活动在全球范围内和生命的所有复杂性层次上影响海洋生态系统。尽管它们作为生态系统过程中的关键参与者具有重要意义，但微生物所受到的压力却被大大忽视了。这一事实因微生物群落的分析困难以及其高度多样性而加剧，使得确定模式变得困难。在这篇综述中，我们讨论了营养物质增加、有机化学物质和重金属污染以及抗生素和病原体引入环境的影响。微生物群落对营养物质和化学污染的增加会通过增加细胞数量做出积极响应。群落组成也会发生显著变化，多样性增加，时间变化性高。这些变化证明了由于人为压力导致的环境条件的改变，通常会改变群落的功能，尽管这方面尚未得到深入探讨。受人类活动影响的海洋环境中改变的微生物群落反过来也会对人类健康产生不利影响（即病原体的传播和抗生素耐药性）。与气候变化有关的新的海洋生态系统威胁也可能对微生物群落产生影响。因此，在研究人为活动对海洋生态系统的影响时，应该努力详细分析微生物组。
