Insights into the Marine Deep Biosphere: Deep Biosphere Activity
(2013)Abstract
<p>The <a href="http://www.darkenergybiosphere.org/">Center for Dark Energy Biosphere Investigations</a> (C-DEBI) is a multi-year research initiative sponsored by the National Science Foundation. This initiative and the projects it encompasses span many institutions and have <a href="http://www.darkenergybiosphere.org/research/themes.html">four intertwining themes</a>. Here, we present material on the first of these themes, <strong>Activity in the Deep Subsea Biosphere</strong>. First, however, what is the center all about?</p>
<p>The world we live in is dominated by microbial life. You can’t see them, but microorganisms are all around us. Everything living thing depends on them in one fashion or another. Many natural processes that we take for granted, such as plants growing from sunlight, and the decomposition of waste, result from microbial activity. Microbes provide essential nutrients, vitamins and other essential molecules for human and animal diets. They even regulate oxygen and carbon dioxide in the air. Microbial organisms both produce and consume huge amounts of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane. On a global scale, even “small” shifts in microbial activity can change Earth’s entire climate.</p>
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<p>Although microbial processes are essential to life on Earth, scientists don’t know some of the most basic biological details about many of these organisms: who, what, and where are they?</p>
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