Chapter 1 - Applied environmental metabolomics: Eliciting viewpoints from the metabolomics research community

Abstract

Environmental metabolomics is a growing field of research with increasing impact and diversity of management outcomes, but, like any emerging field, it has its ongoing challenges (e.g., standardization, reproducibility, data interpretation) not least of which is a lack of recognition by industry and regulators. It is therefore timely to synthesize the tacit knowledge of leaders in the field and to illustrate the importance of specific research elements, pinch-points within workflows and approaches for further growth and external recognition. These viewpoints from the environmental metabolomics community are captured within this book, via structured case studies guided by the Community Metabolomics Standard Initiative Guidance Documents. This Introductory Chapter outlines the key elements of the case study reports. Case study authors were provided with a template as guidance, and populated chapters are presented in the book as a series of “Reports from the Field.” These “reports” cover various aspects of environmental metabolomics applications, from wild-caught studies and ecosystem microbial community studies to lab-reared model organisms. The reports provide real-world examples from leaders in the field on the application of metabolomics to investigate environmental exposure, contaminant impacts, ecological perturbations, and ecosystem health. They provide detailed insight into best practice, the everyday challenges of undertaking environmental metabolomics and lessons learned. We hope that this summary serves as an invaluable resource for future studies and brings environmental metabolomics out of the field and into formal practice.