Volatile Biomarkers for Aquatic Ecological Research

All organisms and ecosystems emit and consume volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Traditionally, these have been qualitatively and quantitatively described in isolation without full consideration of the ‘signatures’ produced by the totality of all volatiles released. Here, we suggest that volatilomics, a research area applied to medical diagnostics, soil biology and pest control, can advance aquatic ecological research by providing a relatively fast diagnostic tool to investigate, for example, taxonomic and likely also functional diversity in aquatic systems—providing a novel technique for the biomonitoring of aquatic environments. Our case study demonstrates the utility of volatilomics to differentiate between four different algal genera using a principal component analysis. We highlight the utility of volatilomics to the monitoring of environmental processes and discuss its application to inform industrial mariculture procedures.