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Ocean microbe communities changing, but long-term environmental impact is unclear
Date:2/14/2012

ong-term and global phenomenon, researchers need to know more about these microbes, and whether their behavior will amplify or reduce atmospheric carbon and the greenhouse effect.

It could be either, Giovannoni said.

"Some warming of surface waters may reduce carbon sequestration, which could cause a feedback loop to increase global warming," Giovannoni said.

"Other forces, what we call the microbial carbon pump, could cause carbon to sink into the deep ocean and be segregated from the atmosphere for thousands of years," he said. "We know both of these processes exist, but which one will become dominant is unpredictable, because we know so little about ocean microbes."

It was only two decades ago that OSU scientists discovered SAR11, an ocean microbe and the smallest free-living cell known, but one that's now understood to dominate life in the oceans, thrives where most other cells would die and plays a huge role in carbon cycling on Earth.

Microbial action also surprised scientists just recently, Giovannoni noted, when specific microbe populations surged following the Gulf Coast oil spill and cleaned up much of the oil faster than many thought possible. And some plans to "fertilize" the ocean and sequester atmospheric carbon through marine phytoplankton growth have been put on hold, he said, because it just isn't certain what would happen.

To reduce that uncertainty, Giovannoni advocates more aggressive development and implementation of marine microbial monitoring technology around the world, to add to what scientists can already learn from study of satellite images. And the field is so new, he said, that many researchers are not even comparing the same types of data or standardizing the tools they use to assess microbial diversity a problem that needs to be addressed.

Dramatic advances in DNA sequencing in recent years, Giovannoni said, should also help researchers unravel the ocean microbe mystery.'/>"/>

Contact: Stephen Giovannoni
steve.giovannoni@oregonstate.edu
541-737-1835
Oregon State University
Source:Eurekalert

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