This record includes training materials associated with the Australian BioCommons webinar 'Australian Microbiome – enabling insights into environmental microbial ecosystems'. This webinar took place on 15 April 2026.

Webinar Description

Global microbial atlas initiatives are enabling resolution of the distribution, function, and ecological roles of microorganisms. However, significant geographic and environmental blind spots remain, particularly in Southern Hemisphere ecosystems, remote coastal and marine environments, and extreme terrestrial habitats.

The Australian Microbiome (AM) initiative is addressing this gap by providing a uniquely comprehensive, national-scale dataset that substantially strengthens global atlas efforts. With ~14,000 samples spanning Australia’s large climatic and ecological gradients, AM offers standardised workflows and rich environmental metadata.

Join Dr Andrew Bissett, CSIRO, as he steps us through how AM enhances global capacity to detect macroecological trends, characterise novel microbial diversity, and track environment‑critical microbial responses to climate and land‑use change.

Speaker: Dr Andrew Bissett, Group Leader, Marine Ecosystem Observations & Assessments, CSIRO

Host: Rahul Ratwatte, Australian BioCommons

Training materials

Materials are shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International agreement unless otherwise specified and were current at the time of the event.

Files and materials included in this record:

• Australian Microbiome Zenodo - Event metadata - webinars.pdf: Information about the event including, description, event URL, learning objectives, prerequisites, technical requirements etc.
• AM_APRIL_22026_shared.pdf: slides presented during the webinar.

Files and materials shared elsewhere:

• Recording of the presentation on the Australian BioCommons YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/Ddaid4tPXXI