Abundance and diversity of microbial life in ocean crust

kavin submitted, created time 7 months 1 week (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)

Here, using quantitative polymerase chain reaction, in situ hybridization and microscopy, the authors demonstrate that prokaryotic cell abundances on seafloor-exposed basalts are 3-4 orders of magnitude greater than in overlying deep sea water. They hypothesize that alteration reactions fuel chemolithoautotrophic microorganisms, which constitute a trophic base of the basalt habitat, with important implications for deep-sea carbon cycling and chemical exchange between basalt and sea water.

2 comments | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: ecosystems basalt ecology marine biology ocean microbes ocean crust microbial life

Prokaryote community found thriving a mile beneath the ocean floor

Darkfrog submitted, created time 7 months 1 week (www.nytimes.com)

Intact cells, including Pyrococcus, have been drilled up from over 5300 feet beneath the ocean off Newfoundland. Deep down, these archae seem to feed on methane and organic carbon. Living creatures have been found deeper than that under land, but the record that gets brken here is the density. This isn't some scanty population eking by: they are thriving.

The temperature down there is well above the boiling point of water, so these guys count as extremophiles, like the hot-spring-loving Thermus aquaticus that gave us Taq DNA polymerase.

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Bad Weather Makes for a Long Day

Ocean acidification may make algae flourish

Darkfrog submitted, created time 8 months 2 weeks (www.nytimes.com)

For many of the smallest marine life forms, the biggest issue on the block isn't global warming, it's ocean acidification. Acid in the oceans can dissolve the calcium carbonate that makes up coral's support structure. It was thought that the shells of coccolithophores, a type of algae that forms the base of much of the ocean's ecosystem, would be dissolved as well, and one study says that they will

Submit comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: marine biology coral ocean oceans acidification ocean acidification ocean pH ecosystems food chain oceanography algae coccolithophores

Weak response of oceanic dimethylsulfide to upper mixing shoaling induced by global warming

herry submitted, created time 1 year 3 months (www.pnas.org)

The solar radiation dose in the oceanic upper mixed layer (SRD) has recently been identified as the main climatic force driving global dimethylsulfide (DMS) dynamics and seasonality. Because DMS is suggested to exert a cooling effect on the earth radiative budget through its involvement in the formation and optical properties of tropospheric clouds over the ocean, a positive relationship between DMS and the SRD supports the occurrence of a negative feedback between the oceanic biosphere and climate, as postulated 20 years ago.

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CO2 emissions could violate EPA ocean-quality standards within decades

bianjie submitted, created time 1 year 3 months (www.eurekalert.org)

In a commentary in the Sept. 25, 2007, issue of the Geophysical Research Letters, a large team of scientists state that human-induced carbon dioxide emissions will alter ocean chemistry to the point where it will violate US Environmental Protection Agency Quality Criteria (1976) by mid-century if emissions are not dramatically curtailed now. This is the first recognition that atmospheric CO2 emissions will cause ocean waters to violate EPA water quality criteria.

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Ocean's 'twilight zone' may be a key to understanding climate change

BIOBOSS submitted, created time 1 year 8 months (www.eurekalert.org)

A major study sheds new light on the role of carbon dioxide once it's transported to the oceans' depths. The research indicates that instead of sinking, carbon dioxide is often consumed by animals and bacteria and recycled in the "twilight zone," a dimly lit area 100 to 1,000 meters below the surface.

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