Abstract:Exploitation and utilization of biological resources in the coastal zone, particularly the sustainable utilization of new microbial strategic resources, are the important contents of ecological civilization construction and key support for sustainable development of coastal zone in China. At present, the shortages of energy and water resource have become the two serious challenges in the region. Therefore, it is very important to develop the sustainable use of biological resources in the region. As a new type of microbial strategic resource, "Electricigens" has been widely concerned around the world because of its electrochemical activity and the potential of wide range of application. "Electromicrobiology" is a cross discipline of microbiology and electrochemistry, and its research scope covers life sciences, chemistry, earth sciences, and materials sciences. The core mission of electromicrobiology is to reveal the mechanism of microbial extracellular electron transfer and to explore the practical prospect in the field of sustainable development of environmental protection, pollution control, new energy development, and biogeochemical cycle. In this paper, the development trend of the subject and the frontier scientific issues are briefly reviewed and the future development is prospected. The sustainable development in coastal zone requires multidisciplinary collaborative development, strengthening the cultivation of interdisciplinary talents and international cooperation, enhancing the cooperation between the government and enterprises in the field of practice, deploying the key research projects on the basis of the fundamental research, and carrying out national or international level of large-scale scientific research projects, even building the interdisciplinary research center with the core of "Coastal Science". Strengthening the study of electromicrobiology will contribute to the use of new microbial strategic resources, and it will be helpful to sustainable economic development of coastal zone and ecological civilization construction of China.