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.
Oysters play unexpected role in protecting blue crabs from disease
Oysters famously filter their surrounding water, but it turns out they are removing more than algae and excess nutrients. New research shows they can also reduce the spread of disease in nearby marine species, including Chesapeake Bay’s prized blue crabs.
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Sediment core yields evidence of an unexpected climate feedback in Antarctica
Researchers have concluded that global warming may lead to reduced uptake of carbon dioxide than at present in the Pacific sector of the Southern Ocean if the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, which is considered unstable, continues to shrink.
From sea to soil: Molecular changes suggest how algae evolved into plants
A research team used cryo-electron microscopy to look at the three-dimensional structure and function of Lhcp, a unique prasinophyte LHC, from the microscopic alga Ostreococcus tauri. The team compared their results to LHCII, which is found in terrestrial plants.
One of Earth’s most abundant organisms is surprisingly fragile
A group of ocean bacteria long considered perfectly adapted to life in nutrient-poor waters may be more vulnerable to environmental change than scientists realized. The bacteria, known as SAR11, dominate surface seawater worldwide and can make up as much as 40% of marine bacterial cells.
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Corals sleep like us, but their symbiosis does not rest
A study has revealed that corals also sleep, despite not having a nervous system, while their microbiome remains awake. For the first time, a biological day-night pattern that transcends the individual and helps sustain a symbiotic relationship has been identified in situ.
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Fossilized plankton study gives long-term hope for oxygen depleted oceans
A new study suggests the world’s oxygen depleted seas may have a chance of returning to higher oxygen concentrations in the centuries to come, despite our increasingly warming climate.
Mineral dust accelerating melting of Greenland ice sheet
Scientists have found that airborne mineral dust and other aerosols are directly connected to how much algae grows on the ice. The algae interfere with albedo, or the reflection of the sun’s rays, exacerbating melting.
Evidence of ‘lightning-fast’ evolution found after dino-killing asteroid impact
The asteroid that struck the Earth 66 million years ago devastated life across the planet, wiping out the dinosaurs and other organisms. But new research shows new species of plankton appeared fewer than 2,000 years after the world-altering event.
Scientists solve 66 million-year-old mystery of how Earth’s greenhouse age ended
Experts studying foraminifera fossils have discovered that concentrations of calcium in the sea dropped by more than half across the last 66 million years, which likely caused Earth’s massive drop in temperature.
Positive interactions dominate among marine microbes, six-year study reveals
Researchers have found that marine microbes interact in ways that benefit one another more often than they eat each other or compete. Periods of elevated ocean temperatures, usually times of stress for these microbes because of a dearth of nutrients, resulted in even more of these positive interactions.
Seawater microbes offer new, non-invasive way to detect coral disease, study finds
Researchers have discovered that microorganisms in seawater surrounding corals provide a powerful indicator of coral disease, potentially transforming how reef health is monitored worldwide.
£3.7 million project aims to provide unprecedented analysis of mesophotic coral reefs
Scientists are to carry out an unprecedented assessment of the response and resilience of mesophotic coral ecosystems – coral reef communities found at depths of between 30m and 150m in tropical regions – to the temperature shifts predicted under future climate change.
Early intervention of cyanobacterial risks starting from the genome?
A new study proposes using “~3 Mbp” as a threshold to establish a genome size-oriented proxy indicator for cyanobacterial risk early warning.
Corday Selden selected for the Oceanography Society Early Career Award
The Oceanography Society (TOS) has selected Dr. Corday Selden, an Assistant Professor at Rutgers University, as a recipient of the TOS Early Career Award, recognizing her outstanding early-career research contributions, leadership in ocean sciences, and exceptional promise for future impact in oceanography.
Jeremy Horowitz selected for The Oceanography Society Early Career Award
The Oceanography Society (TOS) has selected Dr. Jeremy Horowitz as a recipient of the TOS Early Career Award, recognizing his outstanding early-career research contributions, impact, and promise for continued achievement in oceanography, along with his strong record of mentorship, outreach, and collaborative science.
Not only toxic but also a nutrient: guanidine as a nitrogen source
Cyanobacteria are key ecological players of global carbon and nitrogen cycles. They are also becoming increasingly important for carbon-neutral biotechnology. They could serve as green cell factories for a light-driven and sustainable production of chemicals and fuels – a central pillar of the sustainable bioeconomy.
Team shows how viral lysis of blue-green algae enhances ecosystem-scale productivity
Newly published interdisciplinary research shows viral infection of blue-green algae in the ocean stimulates productivity in the ecosystem and contributes to a rich band of oxygen in the water.
From sediment to surface: How invisible plumes trigger harmful algal blooms
A new study shows that algal blooms can begin days earlier than previously recognized, originating from chlorophyll-rich plumes rising from lake sediments before any surface discoloration appears.
Study identifies a molecular switch that controls transitions between single-celled and multicellular forms
How did multicellular life evolve from single cells? Researchers have identified genes in marine yeast that may help answer this fundamental question.
Antibiotics in sediments may quietly boost greenhouse gas emissions
A study shows that pharmaceutical pollution alters nitrogen cycling and greenhouse gas emissions in coastal sediments. Even environmentally relevant antibiotic concentrations increased N₂O release, suggesting that widespread contamination may enhance estuarine climate forcing.
Deep ocean earthquakes drive Southern Ocean’s massive phytoplankton blooms, study finds
Researchers have uncovered evidence that deep underwater earthquakes can spur the growth of massive phytoplankton blooms at the ocean surface. The new findings point to a previously unknown relationship between the ocean floor and life at the surface.
Bacteria resisting viral infection can still sink carbon to ocean floor
Researchers exploring the mechanisms of phage resistance and its effects on the ecological jobs done by ocean bacteria found that some of the mutations studied don’t interfere with the bacteria’s ability to carry out their job of capturing and sinking carbon to the ocean floor.
Study reveals how ocean’s most abundant bacteria diversify
New research has found that SAR11 marine bacteria are not a single, uniform population as often thought. Instead, they are organized into stable, ecologically distinct groups, essentially specialized “teams” adapted to specific environments, such as the coast versus the open ocean.