于1994～1998年期间调查了浮游植物生产的生源气候气体二甲基硫（DMS）及其前身二甲基硫丙酸（DMSPp）在我国胶州湾、芝罘湾、东海的分布状况及其影响因素。结果表明，自然海区中二者浓度都存在明显的时空变化。地理分布规律是，高值出现在沿岸海区和陆架海区，低值出现在外海特别是贫营养海区。就不同季节而言，高值出现在春季或夏季，低值出现在秋季。DMS或DMSPp的分布在大尺度上主要受海流和水团的影响，而在小尺度上营养条件和生物因子则更重要。 在近岸海区，硅藻是DMS和 DMSPp的重要贡献者。研究海区硝酸盐与DMSPp的关系有两种情况：当硝酸盐浓度低于1μmol/L时，二者为正相关，硝酸盐浓度高于这个阈值时，二者为负相关。表明浮游植物细胞中二甲基硫丙酸作为渗透压调节物质其含量受到氮源可得性的调控。此外，研究结果还显示，生活污水入海、海水养殖等也对DMS和DMSPp的浓度分布有一定影响。

Aerobic anoxygenic phototrophic bacteria (AAPB) are characterized by the following hysiological and ecological features. A mother AAPB cell can unusually divide into 3 daughter cells and looks like a "Y" during the division. AAPB cells sometimes adhere together forming a free-floating population. Most of the known AAPB species are obligately aerobic. Bacteriochlorophyll a (BChl a) is the only photosynthetic pigment in AAPB, and the number of BChl a molecules in an AAPB cell is much less than that in an anaerobic phototrophic bacterial cell, while the accessorial pigments carotenoids in AAPB are abundant in concentration and diverse in species. In addition to the common magnesium containing BChl a, a zinc-containing BChla was also seen in AAPB. AAPB have light harvesting complex but usually lack light harvesting complex. Although AAPB featur in photosynthesis, their growth is not necessarily lightdependent. There is a mechanism controlling the photosynthesis approach. AAPB are widely distributed in marine environments especially in oligotrophic oceans accounting for a substantial portion of the total biomass and playing a unique role in the cycle of carbon and other biogenic elements. Besides the contribution to primary production, AAPB also have great potentials in bioremediation of polluted environments. Studies on AAPB would be of great value in understanding the evolution of photosynthesis and the structure and function of marine ecosystems.

The structure and diversity of the Archaea collected from prawn farm sediment were investigated for the first time. A partial 16S ribosomal DNA library was constructed with Archaea-specific primers. Subsequently, 80 randomly selected archaeal clones from the library were analyzed by restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP), and resulted in 50 different RFLP patterns. Sequence analysis of representatives from each unique RFLP type revealed high diversity in the archaeal populations, and the majority of archaeal clones were either members of novel lineages or mostclosely related to uncultured clones. In the phylogenetic analysis, the archaeal clones could be grouped into discrete phylogenetic lineages within the two kingdoms Crenarchaeota and Euryarchaeota. Euryarchaeota dominated in our archaeal library, with up to 72.2% of the total clones, and Crenarchaeota represented 27.8%. Of all the Euryarchaeota clones, three clones (5.6%) were affiliated with Methanosarcinales, four clones (7.4%) were related to Methanomicrobiales, three clones (5.6%) were related to Halobacterium (with 93% similarity), and the remaining clones (81.5%) were related to those uncultured Euryarchaeota in the aquatic sediment ecosystem. None of the crenarchaeal clones were ssociated with any known cultured lineages. The selective dispersal of the archaeal population indicates that their ecological niches are associated with environmental characteristics. Novel phylotypes of Archaea would expand our understanding of the genetic diversity of Archaea in aquatic sediment systems and would be significant in the phylogenetic study of Archaea.

Prochlorococcus, a tiny oxygenic photosynthetic picoplankton with unique pigment composition, has been found to be ubiquitous and abundant in the world oceans, and has been recognized to be closely related to living resources and environmental issues. It has attracted the interest of marine biologists since its discovery, and field data on it over global oceans have accumulated rapidly in the past 10 years. In China, we have studied Prochlorococcus for 8 years, achieving a basic cological understanding. The presence of Prochlorococcus in China seas, marginal seas of the west Pacific, was confirmed, and its distribution patterns were also brought to light. Prochlorococcus is very abundant in the South China Sea and the offshore regions of the East China Sea. It is seasonally present in the southeast part of the Yellow Sea and absent in the Bohai Sea. Temporal and spatial variations of the abundance of Prochlorococcus and their affecting factors, physiological and ecological characteristics of Prochlorococcus and their relationships to the other groups of picoplankton, and the importance of Prochlorococcus in total biomass and possible roles in living resources and environmental problems are discussed. In the future, isolation of different Prochlorococcus strains from the China seas and their physiological characteristics, genetic diversity, phylogenies and gene exploiture, etc. are important issues to be addressed.