Bacterial chats limit carbon absorption by sea

Last Updated: Thursday, October 13, 2011, 12:14

Tags: Bacterial chats, Limit carbon absorption, Sea

Bacterial chats limit carbon absorption by sea

Washington: Bacterial chats could significantly impact our climate by limiting the quantity of carbon dioxide absorbed by the seas from the air.

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) scientists made this discovery, throwing up the first ever evidence that chat among bugs plays a crucial role in our carbon cycle.

"Microscopic bacteria buffer the amount of carbon dioxide (Co2) in the air through their 'conversations'," said Benjamin Van Mooy from WHOI, the journal Environmental Microbiology Reports.

"I think it's amazing that there are a near infinite number of these conversations going on in the ocean right now, and they are affecting the Earth's carbon cycle," added Van Mooy, according to WHOI statement.

Bacteria unite on tiny particles of carbon-rich detritus sinking through the ocean depths, sending out chemical signals to entice their cousins in the vicinity, according to WHOI marine biogeochemists Laura Hmelo, Van Mooy and Tracy Mincer.

If enough of their cohorts are nearby, they begin secreting enzymes to break up the carbon-containing molecules within the particles into more digestible bits.

Arguably, this coordinated expression of enzymes is very advantageous for bacteria on sinking particles, and Hmelo and her colleagues have uncovered the first proof of this in the ocean.

"We don't often think about bacteria making group decisions, but that is exactly what our data suggests is happening," said Hmelo, now at the University of Washington.

The source of carbon in the particles is atmospheric CO2, a heat-trapping greenhouse gas. Bacterial communication could lead to the release of carbon from the particles at shallower depths, rather than sinking to the ocean's depths.

IANS

First Published: Thursday, October 13, 2011, 12:14

Comments

Andrew - Carmel, CA
Please engage brain before quoting pseudo-scientists! Didn`t it strike you that there was something wrong with, ``And, says the team, bacterial communication could be leading to the release of carbon from the particles at shallow depths, . . . . Did these idiots perhaps mean, ``leading to the release of carbon dioxide . . . . Thus, the bacterial communication means that less carbon dioxide is drawn out of the air and transferred to the bottom of the ocean, where it can`t easily return to the atmosphere ``? Are we seriously expected to believe that the release of CO2 from detritus by bacteria is significant in terms of the total CO2 dissolved in the oceans (vs. how much is released on land???)? Anybody who actually believes that the CO2 chicken came before the warming egg has obviously never opened a room temperature bottle of soda, a simple demonstration of the fact that it`s much, much more than likely that atmospheric CO2 is rising as a result of, rather than being the cause of, increasing temperature. Oh, and while pouring gasoline, permit me to point out that N. America is a net consumer of carbon!