Summer Course 2025 – Climate Change and Marine Ecosystems

From 29 June to 4 July 2025, our lab successfully hosted the sixth edition of international summer course, bringing together over 30 participants from a diverse range of countries and backgrounds for a week of intensive learning and  practical training. The summer course, funded by the Croucher Foundation, has been organized biennially since 2013 and is renowned for emphasizing the impacts of climate change on the structure and functioning of marine microbial communities.

This year, the course focused on the application of multi-omics approaches in marine biology and ecology to investigate the responses of marine organisms and ecosystems to changing ocean conditions. The course was directed by Professor Hongbin Liu and featured five distinguished instructors with extensive expertise in bioinformatics and multi-omics. Notable instructors included Professor Frédéric Partensky (Station Biologique de Roscoff), Professor Michael Landry (University of California, San Diego), Professor Natalie Cohen (Skidaway Institute of Oceanography), Professor Shengwei Hou (Southern University of Science and Technology), and Professor Zhili He (Sun Yat-sen University).

Throughout the five-day workshop, participants engaged with a variety of topics, including marine microbial ecology, food web dynamics, carbon and nitrogen cycling, synthetic ecology, and virology. Professors Hou and Cohen provided valuable hands-on training sessions in amplicon and metagenomic analysis, as well as statistical data analysis, offering participants practical skills in state-of-the-art bioinformatic techniques. Additionally, a poster session was held, allowing each participant to present their research ideas and experiences, fostering scientific exchange and networking.

We thank all instructors, participants, and supporters who contributed to the success of this year’s course. We look forward to continued collaboration and to welcoming new participants in future editions.