| Citation | Tom Fenchel has contributed greatly to the understanding of the importance of prokaryotic and eukaryotic microorganisms in aquatic environments. His discoveries include unravelling the role of bacteria and protists in sediments with respect to fluxes of matter and energy, and the spatial structure of microbial and other biotic communities. He was instrumental in the discovery of the "microbial loop" in the water column of the sea. These contributions provided the foundations for the major scientific developments in microbial ecology and biological oceanography of the last 20 years. To this can be added a long list of contributions to ecological physiology, and population and evolutionary biology. |