Posted on 05/17/2016 3:02:37 PM PDT by Reeses
Scientists at the University of East Anglia (UEA) have discovered how a tiny yet abundant ocean organism helps regulate the Earths climate.
Research published today in Nature Microbiology reveals how a bacterial group called Pelagibacterales plays an important function in keeping the Earths atmosphere stable.
The project was led by Prof Steve Giovannoni and Dr Jing Sun at Oregon State University, in collaboration with researchers from UEA among others.
They showed that these tiny, hugely abundant bacteria could make the environmentally important gas, dimethyl sulfide. Researchers at UEA identified and characterised the gene that is responsible for this property.
Dr Jonathan Todd from UEAs School of Biological Sciences said: These types of ocean bacteria are among the most abundant organisms on Earth - comprising up to half a million microbial cells found in every teaspoon of seawater.
We studied it at a molecular genetic level to discover exactly how it generates a gas called dimethylsulfide (DMS), which is known for stimulating cloud formation.
Our research shows how a compound called dimethylsulfoniopropionate that is made in large amounts by marine plankton is then broken down into DMS by these tiny ocean organisms called Pelagibacterales.
The resultant DMS gas may then have a role in regulating the climate by increasing cloud droplets that in turn reduce the amount of sunlight hitting the oceans surface.
Dr Emily Fowler from UEAs School of Biological Sciences worked on the characterisation of the Pelagibacterales DMS generating enzymes as part of her successful PhD at UEA. She said: Excitingly, the way Pelagibacterales generates DMS is via a previously unknown enzyme, and we have found that the same enzyme is present in other hugely abundant marine bacterial species. This likely means we have been vastly underestimating the microbial contribution to the production of this important gas.
Dr Temperton from Exeter University added: This work shows that the Pelagibacterales are likely an important component in climate stability. If we are going to improve models of how DMS impacts climate, we need to consider this organism as a major contributor.
Whats fascinating is the elegance and simplicity of DMS production in the Pelagibacterales. These organisms dont have the genetic regulatory mechanisms found in most bacteria. Having evolved in nutrient-limited oceans, they have some of the smallest genomes of all free-living organisms, because small genomes take fewer resources to replicate.
The abundant marine bacterium Pelagibacter simultaneously catabolizes dimethylsulfonio propionate to the gases dimethyl sulphide and methanethiol is published in the journal Nature Microbiology on Monday, May 15, 2016.
Kill Microfauna!
Its the fracking!
Hey, be carefull there guy, you’re playing with fire.
That’s a micro agression right there.
So, have the biological activity of these Pelagibacterales been incorporated into the Climate Models?
Climate change needs to end. Any which contributes to a temperature which deviates from the officially recorded temperature at noon on June 3rd, 1854 at the Meteorological Office in England must be destroyed. This includes Christianity, all white males, the NRA, small farmers, and people who collect rain water in barrels on their property.
AlGore is a tiny organism.
I am an antibioticist and proud of it.
Thanks Reeses.
No, and you can tell by the s suffix on the word model. If there was a model that actually worked we would only need one.
I thought that said “tiny orgasms.”
I thought it was all controlled by an inert gas that exists in minor concentrations!?
Isn’t this out of the same university that falsified the global warming data?
Send in the whales!
East Anglia? Izat like the New York Times, or have they cleaned up their scientific act.
That university descredited itself by having the dubious honor of changing climate data to meet the climate change con and even more stupid, documenting it via emails.
Read their pubs with the same doubts as one would read the Guardian.
OrgaNISMS...lol...read that wrong the first time...
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