Microbial Production of Gases in the Deep Marine Subsurface

Members of the Former University of Rhode Island Team, have published their latest findings on the production of ethane and propane in the deep subsurface in this week’s PNAS. The work stems from cores drilled on Leg 201 of the Ocean Drilling Program, February-March 2002. The Ocean Drilling Program is succeeded by the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program which concluded it’s “Exploring Subseafloor Life” workshop this week in Vancouver.

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October 4, 2006 / Posted by: Shige Abe

Strategies for Evolutionary Success - Sulfolipids

Researchers from NAI’s University of Rhode Island Team and their colleagues have studied the use of phosphorus vs. sulfur in the membrane lipid sythesis pathways of organisms resident in the ocean’s subtropical gyres. Their data show that the dominant organism in the phytoplankton, a cyanobacterium, has evolved a “sulfur-for-phosphorus” strategy; producing a membrane lipid containing sulfate and sugar instead of phosphate. This adaptation may have been a major event in Earth’s early history when the relative availability of sulfate and phosphate was different than in today’s oceans. Their paper appears in the June 6th issue of PNAS.

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July 5, 2006 / Posted by: Shige Abe

A Window into the Subsurface Microbial Population

A new paper this week in PNAS highlights a collaboration between NAI Lead Teams at Penn State, University of Rhode Island, UCLA, and the Marine Biological Laboratory. Their research reveals that heterotrophic Archea dominate the scene in a variety of biogeochemically distinct sedimentary regions, and may constitute a significant portion of the prokaryotic biomass in Earth’s subsurface. Ecosystem-level carbon budgets suggest that community turnover times are on the order of 100-2,000 years.

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February 28, 2006 / Posted by: Shige Abe

Life in the Deep Subseafloor

In a new study published in this week’s PNAS, researchers from NAI’s University of Rhode Island Lead Team report the vertical and geographical distribution of microbes in deeply buried marine sediments of the Pacific Ocean Margin. Sediment cores from the Peru and Cascadia Margins were obtained, and thousands of clones were studied to describe the nature of the biomass in areas with and without methane hydrates. The data suggest that prokaryotic communities from methane hydrate-bearing sediment cores are distinct from those in hydrate-free cores. This study is an important step in understanding the role of biology in Earth’s...

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February 22, 2006 / Posted by: Shige Abe