[Soft-matter] OSM26 Session PI005: Interactions of microbes with their viscous environment

[Magdalena Mrokowska]

Dear Soft Matter & Complex Systems community,


Please consider submitting an abstract to our session titled "Interactions of microbes with their viscous environment" (https://agu.confex.com/agu/osm26/prelim.cgi/Session/257655) at the 2026 Ocean Sciences Meeting in Glasgow. We believe that this topic is rellevant to the Soft Matter & Complex Systems community interests and it may be a great opportunity for many of us to meet in person. Please note that abstracts are due on August 20, 2025.

We hope to see you in Glasgow!

Bryce, Magdalena, Stuart and Òscar


Session: PI005: Interactions of microbes with their viscous environment

Topic: Physical-Biological Interactions

Abstract: Marine microorganisms live and die in a fluid environment dominated by viscosity, which controls fundamental processes such as molecular diffusion and particle motion. Crucially, marine organisms can engineer their own immediate environment by releasing or degrading viscous organic matter, and in the process influence large-scale ocean food webs and elemental cycling. This session focuses on microbial generation of and response to physical microenvironments that are characterized by viscoelastic exopolymeric substances (EPS), colloids, gels, and aggregates. We welcome in-situ, laboratory, numerical, and theoretical studies that investigate microbial ecology (e.g. chemotaxis, nutrient acquisition, chemical communication, predation, symbioses) from a biophysical perspective (e.g. motility, diffusion, aggregation, fragmentation, sedimentation, rheology, fluid mechanics). Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, physical interactions of microorganisms with marine snow, biofilms, phycospheres, sea surface microlayers, slimes, gelatinous zooplankton, kelp, coral, fish mucus membranes, and environmental contaminants such as oil and nano- and microplastics.

Chairs: Bryce Inman (University of Lincoln UK), Magdalena Mrokowska, (Institute of Geophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland), Stuart Humphries (University of Lincoln, UK), Òscar Guadayol (IMEDEA. UIB-CSIC, Spain).


Magdalena Mrokowska
--
Magdalena Mrokowska<https://magdalenamrokowska.com>, Associate Professor
Institute of Geophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences
Hydrology and Hydrodynamics Department
Ks. Janusza 64, 01-452 Warsaw, Poland

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