The ocean that unites us is not equally studied
The Ocean is the largest ecosystem on Earth. It regulates the planet’s climate, provides food and oxygen, and connects every continent. Yet despite covering more than two-thirds of the planet’s surface, and with most of its waters lying in the Southern Hemisphere, scientific research remains concentrated in the North.
A new article published in Ocean Microbiology and led by researchers from the Department of Hydrobiology at the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar, Brazil), together with 85 scientists from around the world, highlights this imbalance and calls for a transformation in how global marine science is done.
The study reveals that nearly two-thirds of all ocean microbiome samples come from the Northern Hemisphere, while vast southern regions, such as the Benguela upwelling off southern Africa and the Amazon River Plume, remain comparatively underexplored. These are not marginal zones: they are biological and biogeochemical hotspots essential for understanding how the planet’s life-support systems work.
“Ocean science has not developed evenly across the world. Recognizing this imbalance is the first step toward building a more inclusive and collaborative future for marine research.”
Why the ocean microbiome matters
The paper focuses on the ocean microbiome: the immense, invisible community of microorganisms that sustains marine ecosystems and influences global carbon and nutrient cycles. Microbes drive the biological pump that sequesters carbon in the deep sea, regulate ocean productivity, and produce about half of Earth’s oxygen.
Studying them requires collecting and sequencing water samples from remote regions of the world’s oceans, an effort that depends on access to research vessels, high-throughput sequencing technologies, and large-scale data analysis platforms. These resources are costly and concentrated in a small number of high-income countries, leaving most of the global ocean and many researchers in the Global South out of reach.
Parachute science: a practice that must stay grounded
Sarmento and colleagues address a persistent ethical challenge in global research known as parachute or helicopter science: when scientists from wealthy nations conduct fieldwork in developing regions without engaging local researchers or communities.
A literature review conducted by the team found that more than half of published studies on the Amazon River plume and the Benguela upwelling lacked authors affiliated with the countries where sampling took place. In some cases, local scientists were included only to fulfill legal requirements such as Brazil’s Biodiversity Law, which mandates national participation for research permits.
“Adding names to satisfy permit conditions is not collaboration. True partnership means co-designing research and sharing both data and decisions.”
These practices, though increasingly criticized, still persist. For Ocean Microbiology (http://omjournal.biomedcentral.com/), a new open-access journal from Springer Nature, this issue lies at the heart of its ethical mission: promoting open, inclusive, and equitable research that moves beyond extractive models of knowledge production.
Collaboration that works: lessons from the Atlantic
While the paper exposes historical asymmetries, it also showcases examples of how fair, collaborative science can succeed.
Funded by the European Union, AtlantECO (https://www.atlanteco.eu/) brought together over 35 institutions from Europe, South America, and Africa to study the Atlantic Ocean’s microbiome. Its Mission Microbiomes, conducted aboard the research schooner Tara, collected 25,000 samples across 168 stations, focusing on tropical and southern waters.
Before each expedition, virtual workshops united local and international researchers to identify scientific priorities. In Brazil, discussions on the Amazon plume addressed both global questions, such as carbon cycling, and local environmental issues like the potential impact of offshore oil extraction. Ten early-career scientists from the Global South joined the expedition, receiving hands-on training in sequencing, bioinformatics, and public outreach.
“By the time Tara left port, the science was already co-owned.”
Another success story is the South Atlantic Ocean Sampling Day (SA-OSD: https://sites.google.com/view/sa-osd/english), which counterbalanced the northern bias of earlier global “Ocean Sampling Day” campaigns. Coordinated through a network spanning Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia, and Chile, the initiative distributed low-cost kits and standardized protocols that enabled molecular microbiome studies in laboratories previously lacking such capacity.
Its impact reached beyond research: SA-OSD trained a generation of young scientists, engaged coastal schools in citizen-science activities, and fostered long-term collaborations across Latin America.
Complementing this initiative, the Microsudaqua Network (https://microsudaqua.netlify.app/en/) demonstrates the power of South-South collaboration. Bringing together more than eighty aquatic microbial ecologists from six South American countries, Microsudaqua has created a space for shared training, co-authored research, and standardized methods. The network strengthens technical skills and visibility for Latin American microbial ecology, proving that equitable collaboration is not limited to large, well-funded consortia.
Together, these initiatives illustrate what Sarmento et al. describe as genuine collaboration: partnerships rooted in shared design, mutual benefit, and local empowerment.
Persistent barriers to equity in ocean research
Despite these advances, major structural challenges continue to hold back the participation of low- and middle-income countries in global marine science.
Obtaining sampling permits within Exclusive Economic Zones often involves lengthy bureaucratic processes and coordination with defense or environmental authorities. Economic barriers remain strong: sequencing is still considerably more expensive in many southern laboratories because of import taxes and limited infrastructure, even when technology transfer programs exist.
Publishing also remains unequal. High article-processing charges (APCs) in open-access journals often exclude southern researchers from disseminating their findings, as waiver systems cover only a small fraction of lower-middle-income nations. At the international level, scientists from the Global South are still under-represented in major governance frameworks such as the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) treaty negotiations.
Together, these obstacles restrict participation, slow discovery, and constrain humanity’s collective understanding of its own ocean.
Science diplomacy and global governance
Beyond documenting disparities, the article connects them to larger political and ethical debates about the governance of marine biodiversity. One of these is the BBNJ Treaty, adopted by the United Nations in 2023 and set to enter into force in 2026.
The treaty defines how countries can access and use marine genetic resources, including digital sequence information (DSI), the genetic data derived from marine microorganisms and stored in public databases. These data hold immense biotechnological and economic potential for developing medicines, enzymes, and biomaterials. Under the BBNJ framework, part of the profits and royalties derived from such resources (many of which originate in waters adjacent to developing countries) will be directed to an international fund to support ocean research, training, and infrastructure in those same regions.
This approach mirrors the spirit of Sarmento et al.’s paper: that equitable benefit-sharing and scientific capacity-building are not optional, but essential for a sustainable and just ocean future.
Building capacity is building integrity
Closing the “southern gap” is not an act of charity; it is an investment in the quality and reliability of global science. Local researchers bring irreplaceable contextual knowledge, knowing where, when, and how to sample, and how to interpret results within ecological and cultural contexts. Empowering them strengthens both the science and the societies that depend on it.
Sarmento and co-authors call for co-funded infrastructure, training programs, and regional sequencing hubs that allow samples to be processed close to their origin. They emphasize that south–south collaboration, knowledge exchange between developing nations, is as vital as traditional north–south partnerships.
Scientific societies and funding agencies can accelerate this change by supporting conferences, workshops, and fellowships hosted in the Global South, fostering local leadership rather than outsourcing expertise.
From awareness to action: shared responsibility
Ocean microbiome research stands at the intersection of cutting-edge technology and ethical responsibility. Its discoveries, from novel enzymes and metabolites to insights into carbon sequestration, are vital for biotechnology, climate modeling, and conservation. Yet the way these discoveries are made matters as much as the results themselves.
Recognizing the ocean as a global common means acknowledging shared stewardship. A fairer science, one that values diversity of expertise as much as biodiversity, will lead to deeper understanding and more durable solutions for the planet.
This decade, proclaimed by the United Nations as the Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021–2030), offers a unique opportunity to realign global research around inclusivity, transparency, and shared benefit. If embraced fully, it could mark the beginning of a new era in which every scientist, regardless of geography, has both the means and the mandate to explore the ocean responsibly.
Because a healthier ocean begins with fairer science. “Equity is not an add-on to scientific excellence,” emphasizes the Ocean Microbiology Chief Editor Ramiro Logares. “It is its foundation.”
Further Reading
Sarmento, H., Huber, P., Santos-Júnior, C.D. et al. The southern gap in ocean microbiome science. Ocean Microbiol. 1, 6 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1186/s44375-025-00006-w