Magnetotactic bacteria shunt sulfur, nitrogen, and other important elements between oxygen-poor and oxygen-rich waters.
Geomicrobiology
Posted inScience Updates
Australia–New Zealand Plan for Future Scientific Ocean Drilling
Australian–New Zealand IODP Consortium Ocean Planet Workshop; Canberra, Australia, 14–16 April 2019
Posted inNews
Marine Virus Survey Reveals Biodiversity Hot Spots
Ocean samples collected from around the world produced a twelvefold increase in the number of marine viruses known. A portion of the Arctic Ocean has “surprisingly high diversity.”
Posted inNews
Atacama Desert’s Unprecedented Rains Are Lethal to Microbes
Rainfall in the driest parts of Chile’s Atacama Desert in 2017 resulted in hypersaline lagoons that killed the majority of microbes adapted to millions of years of arid conditions.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Life and Death in the Deepest Depths of the Seafloor
Lacking light and energy, under-seafloor microbes rely on ancient organic materials to survive.
Posted inNews
Images Suggest a Viral Role in Some Rock Formation
Viruses might have helped transform dense bacterial colonies into a type of sedimentary rock that is frequently associated with underground oil reserves.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Microbes May Thrive in Subsea Permafrost Long After Flooding
Two cores from the East Siberian Arctic Shelf reveal how microbial communities develop over thousands of years as submarine permafrost slowly thaws.
Posted inNews
Soil Bacteria Could Help Absorb Natural Gas Leaks
For the first time, new research examines the response of terrestrial soil microbes to a massive natural gas blowout and offers hope for new remediation strategies.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Rocks in Chile Help Scientists Hunt for Life on Mars
Investigating oxalate minerals in the Atacama Desert provides a terrestrial analogue to test techniques that could be used to study the carbon cycle in the cold deserts of Mars.
Posted inNews
Using Acid and Physical Force, Fungi Burrow Through Rock
Scientists observe the step-by-step process by which a fungus attacks a mineral to extract vital nutrients.