objects. Physicists also recognize that natural astrophysical 

 phenomena, such as black holes, provide a potential basis for 

 developing and testing new theories of the fundamental behavior of 

 matter. The temporal and spatial scale differences between ecology 

 and molecular biology are huge, but integration of molecular 

 biological processes into ecosystem models eventually will 

 comparably enrich these two most important biological fields. 



The Key Research Areas in Molecular Ecology 



The DOE sponsored an interdisciplinary workshop in Asilomar, 

 California, from 6-10 January 1991, to identify key areas where 

 molecular biology could quickly provide the most useful information 

 for understanding ecosystems. The workshop, entitled "The 

 Molecular Bases of Ecology," brought together about 60 scientists, 

 including terrestrial and marine ecologists, microbiologists, 

 molecular biologists, biophysicists, and physiologists. 

 Participants concluded that the following three areas of ecosystem 

 research would benefit from molecular research: 



1. Identifying and quantifying factors limiting and 

 regulating the biologically driven fluxes of geochemically 

 important elements, especially those related to climate. 



2. Understanding the processes that determine the ability of 

 organisms to physiologically acclimate and genetically adapt to 

 environmental changes. 



3. Assessing the impact of long-term environmental changes on 

 the stability, diversity, and function of biological communities. 



Unlike traditional, controlled laboratory experiments, where 

 the influence of one variable on a process can be described 

 independently of the others, ecosystems research is largely 

 multivariate (and often, like astrophysics, uncontrolled) . 

 Inferences must be drawn, either statistically, by modeling, or by 

 manipulating the environment, often without completely 

 understanding the regulatory processes. Molecular techniques offer 

 the possibility of interrogating the status and trends of 

 individual organisms, populations, or communities in the natural 

 ecosystem without manipulating the environment. Using the genetic 

 information of an organism enables that organism, in effect, to 

 become its own reporter. Interpretation of that genetic 



