Trichodesmium, a kind of cyanobacterium that is vital to ocean ecosystems, forms colonies that work together and change shape to get the light and nutrients the microbe needs to grow
These bacteria don’t just provide food for other organisms, they also turnthat other photosynthetic organisms can use. They fertilise vast areas of the ocean that would otherwise be too poor in nutrients for anything to grow, says Pfreundt.
“It’s the living fertiliser for the oceans, essentially,” she says. “They provide a very large part of the nitrogen that is fixed in the ocean, and a whole lot of other organisms that sequester CO2 depend on this nitrogen.”A monthly celebration of the biodiversity of our planet’s animals, plants and other organisms.grows in hair-like filaments up to several hundred cells long.
These aggregates can be 1 or 2 millimetres across, making them visible to the naked eye. In some aggregates, called puffs, the filaments radiate out from the centre like a pompom. In others, called tufts, the filaments are parallel like a lock of hair.. But how the aggregates form has been a mystery, says Pfreundt. One idea is that the filaments just stick together if they bump into each other, but this doesn’t explain their organised appearance. Another is that they grow this way.
The filaments can glide along surfaces, and when two filaments come in contact, they may start sliding along one another, like two trains using each other as a track. If this process continues indefinitely, the filaments slide completely off one another, says Pfreundt. So when the bacteria want to remain in aggregates, they keep reversing directions.
To make the aggregates bunch more tightly, the reversals happen more often, maintaining bigger overlaps of the filaments, she found. To loosen them, the reversals happen less often.
Singapore Latest News, Singapore Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Blown Away: How Desert Dust Fuels Ocean LifeResearchers have found that even modest amounts of desert dust can improve the health of the ocean’s microscopic, plant-like organisms. A new study reveals that land-based mineral dust plays a crucial role in fertilizing oceanic phytoplankton, which are essential to Earth's climate, carbon cycle,
Read more »
At long last, ocean drillers exhume a bounty of rocks from Earth’s mantleExclusive: Drilling below the seabed in the mid–Atlantic Ocean, researchers have collected an unprecedented amount of mantle rocks.
Read more »
Ulysse Nardin’s Newest Dive Watch Proved Its Seaworthiness at The Ocean RaceSetting sail with style and purpose—Ulysse Nardin's latest dive watch makes a splash at The Ocean Race. ⌚🛥️🌊 watches watchcollectors
Read more »
Antarctic currents supplying 40% of world's deep ocean with nutrients and oxygen slowing dramaticallyThese deep ocean tides supply almost half of the world's oceans with vital nutrients and oxygen, but melting ice shelves are slowing them down.
Read more »
Major ocean database that will guide deep-sea mining has flaws, scientists warnAs sea-bed mining looms, researchers say better records of seafloor biodiversity are needed to assess its environmental impact.
Read more »
'Very Bad News Indeed': Study Sounds Alarm on Threat of Deep Ocean Current Collapse'Our modeling shows that if global carbon emissions continue at the current rate, then the Antarctic overturning will slow by more than 40% in the next 30 years—and on a trajectory that looks headed towards collapse,' says ProfMattEngland
Read more »