Forest Rohwer

Forest Rohwer (born 1969) is an American microbial ecologist and Professor of Biology at San Diego State University.

In 2002, as a research scientist San Diego State University, Rohwer performed the first shotgun metagenome (Breitbart et al. 2002).

Working with Anca Segall, Mya Brietbart, Rob Edwards, and the SDSU Biomath Group, Rohwer performed the first virome studies of corals, soils, sediments and humans (Breitbart et al. 2003, 2005, 2008).

They proposed that these bacteria, viruses and other microbes were important for coral health and formed an ecological unit called the holobiont.

Subsequent studies showed microbialization is a global phenomenon and a primary reason for the decline of coral reefs (McDole et al. 2012).

While studying corals, Kristen Marhaver and Rohwer noted that bacteriophage, viruses that infect bacteria, were four to five times more abundant than the surrounding seawater.