Ocean Sustainability
Over 70% of the earth is covered in water, which serves as a vital resource human subsistence. Contamination and acidification pose major threats to aquatic health and biodiversity. Microbes offer a promising solution in their ability to breakdown contamination from oil spills and plastics. Applied microbiologists can play a significant part in understanding biodiversity, contributing to solutions, and encouraging stewardship.
Float like a jellyfish: New coral mobility mechanisms uncovered
A new study has investigated how the free-living mushroom coral Cycloseris cyclolites moves, navigates and responds to light in its natural environments.
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Looking to Kenya’s Lake Victoria for what may come for Lake Erie
Scientists conducted a genetic survey on cyanobacteria in the Winam Gulf of Kenya’s Lake Victoria, which serves as a model for the cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms (cyanHABs) in Lake Erie under the warming climate.
Ship sliming study could enable lower costs and emissions in ocean transport
A model was recently developed to find out the correlation between the speed and extent of biofilm growth and the shear stress of the ship hull. Thus, it helps save fuel consumption by preventing fluid friction from slime fouling.
Cycle of coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef now at ‘catastrophic’ levels
Marine scientists have published the first peer-reviewed study documenting the devastating coral bleaching events that occurred on the southern Great Barrier Reef in early 2024. 66 per cent of the colonies were bleached by February 2024 and 80 per cent by April.
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Machinery behind bacterial nanowires discovered
Almost all living things breathe oxygen to eliminate the excess electrons produced when nutrients are converted into energy. However, most microbes that mitigate pollution and climate change don’t have access to oxygen. Instead, these bacteria—buried underground or living deep under oceans—have developed a way to eliminate electrons by “breathing minerals” ...
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New study provides insight into how some species thrive in dark, oxygen-free environments
A new study sheds light on how a species of foraminifera, single-celled organisms found in almost all marine habitats, thrives in a dark, oxygen-free environment.
Beach guardians: How hidden microbes protect coastal waters in a changing climate
Coastal water quality is closely impacted by the microbial compositions living in groundwater within beach sands due to the rising sea level, a new study reveals.
Researchers develop novel reverse osmosis membrane to reduce biofouling
Researchers have developed a dual-functional reverse osmosis (RO) membrane which demonstrates broad-spectrum, sustained antibacterial activity and resistance to various foulants, making it suitable for water purification, seawater desalination, and high-salinity wastewater treatment.
Scientists explain how a compound from sea sponge exerts its biological effects
Girolline, a compound extracted from the sea sponge Pseudaxinyssa cantharella, has been investigated for possible antitumor effects and also found to have anti-malarial effects. Now researchers have a better idea of how it works.
Bacteria linked to successful restoration of elkhorn coral colonies
Coral restoration should prioritize shallower depths with faster currents in low-nutrient environments to promote a healthier microbial community, a new study suggests.
A Sustainable Development Goal for space?
Scientists have called for the designation of a new United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) with the aim to conserve and sustainably use Earth’s orbit, and prevent the accumulation of space junk.
Tiny microbe colonies communicate to coordinate their behavior
A new study reveals evidence of electrical signaling and coordinated behavior in choanoflagellates, the closest living relatives of animals. This cell communication offers insights into the early evolution of animal multicellularity and nervous systems.
Study uncovers previously unknown bacterial mode of resistance against viruses
Researchers have discovered a unique mechanism that protects marine bacteria from viruses that attack them.
Study uncovers complex drivers of phytoplankton bloom
A new study investigates three key processes, each triggered by different aspects of the wind field, that drive the upward transport of nutrients to the surface capable of triggering plankton blooms at the equator.
Study reveals the hidden genomic evolution of brown algae - and how bacteria and viruses helped
A groundbreaking study has unveiled the evolutionary journey of brown algae through a comprehensive genomic analysis of 44 species, including key evolutionary milestones, such as the transition from unicellular to multicellular forms.
Phytochromes: The ‘eyes’ that enable microalgae to find their way in the depths
By studying the light perception process of diatoms, a group of phytoplankton, scientists have discovered that these microalgae use light variation sensors which are codified in their genomes: phytochromes.
Living in the deep, dark, slow lane: first global appraisal of microbiomes in earth’s subsurface environments
A new study reveals astonishingly high microbial diversity in some of the Earth’s deepest, darkest subsurface environments, including gold mines, in aquifers and deep boreholes in the seafloor.
Ocean microbe’s unusual pair of enzymes may boost carbon storage, study suggests
Scientists have discovered multiple forms of a ubiquitous enzyme in microbes that thrive in low-oxygen zones off the coasts of Central and South America.
Giant virus encodes key piece of protein-making machinery of cellular life
Researchers recently discovered that a virus, FloV-SA2, encodes one of the proteins needed to make ribosomes, the central engines in all cells that translate genetic information into proteins. This is the first eukaryotic virus found to encode such a protein.
Deep-sea hydrothermal vent bacteria hold key to understanding nitrous oxide reduction
Scientists have unearthed a clue to the molecular mechanisms involved in N2O reduction by deep-sea hydrothermal vent bacteria.
Study offers insight into chloroplast evolution
Researchers have found evidence suggesting that the primary role of primitive chloroplasts may have been to produce chemical energy for the cell and only later shifted so that most or all of the energy they generated was used for carbon assimilation.
Tiny poops in the ocean may help solve the carbon problem
Zooplankton could capture carbon dioxide originating from Earth’s atmosphere and deposit it deep into the sea as feces. The new technique mooted consists of spraying clay dust on the surface of the ocean at the site of large blooms of phytoplankton.
New study into the ecological role of deep-sea viruses
Researchers have found that marine viruses show clear distribution patterns throughout the ocean and are influenced by the depth of the ocean rather than the specific location.
