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Greenhouse Gas Likely Altering Ocean Foodchain
http://pressroom.usc.edu/greenhouse-gas-likely-altering-ocean-foodchain/[font face=Serif][font size=5]Greenhouse Gas Likely Altering Ocean Foodchain[/font]
[font size=4]Study shows the atmospheric CO[font size="1"]2[/font] has big consequences for the tiny bacteria that are the foundation of most life in the sea[/font]
Contact: Robert Perkins at (213) 740-9226 or perkinsr@usc.edu
[font size=3]Climate change may be weeding out the bacteria that form the base of the ocean’s food chain, selecting certain strains for survival, according to a new study.
In climate change, as in everything, there are winners and losers. As atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and temperature rise globally, scientists increasingly want to know which organisms will thrive and which will perish in the environment of tomorrow.
The answer to this question for nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria (bacteria that obtain energy through photosynthesis, or “blue-green algae”) turns out to have implications for every living thing in the ocean. Nitrogen-fixing is when certain special organisms like cyanobacteria convert inert – and therefore unusable – nitrogen gas from the air into a reactive form the majority of other living beings need to survive. Without nitrogen fixers, life in the ocean could not survive for long.
“Our findings show that CO[font size="1"]2[/font] has the potential to control the biodiversity of these keystone organisms in ocean biology, and our fossil fuel emissions are probably responsible for changing the types of nitrogen fixers that are growing in the ocean,” said David Hutchins, professor of marine environmental biology at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and lead author of an article about this research that appeared in Nature Geoscience on June 30.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1858[font size=4]Study shows the atmospheric CO[font size="1"]2[/font] has big consequences for the tiny bacteria that are the foundation of most life in the sea[/font]
Contact: Robert Perkins at (213) 740-9226 or perkinsr@usc.edu
[font size=3]Climate change may be weeding out the bacteria that form the base of the ocean’s food chain, selecting certain strains for survival, according to a new study.
In climate change, as in everything, there are winners and losers. As atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and temperature rise globally, scientists increasingly want to know which organisms will thrive and which will perish in the environment of tomorrow.
The answer to this question for nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria (bacteria that obtain energy through photosynthesis, or “blue-green algae”) turns out to have implications for every living thing in the ocean. Nitrogen-fixing is when certain special organisms like cyanobacteria convert inert – and therefore unusable – nitrogen gas from the air into a reactive form the majority of other living beings need to survive. Without nitrogen fixers, life in the ocean could not survive for long.
“Our findings show that CO[font size="1"]2[/font] has the potential to control the biodiversity of these keystone organisms in ocean biology, and our fossil fuel emissions are probably responsible for changing the types of nitrogen fixers that are growing in the ocean,” said David Hutchins, professor of marine environmental biology at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and lead author of an article about this research that appeared in Nature Geoscience on June 30.
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