When glaciers retreat, microbes take over
Researchers demonstrated that the first microbes to colonize recently deglaciated soil can extract nutrients from air and rock to survive…
Category: How do microbes respond to changes in their surroundings?
How do microbes respond to changes in their surroundings? Microbes can be viruses, bacteria, archaea, algae, or fungi.
Does the Arctic Ocean regulate or amplify global warming?
Researchers found that interactions between methane gas and seawater affected greenhouse gas emissions from the Arctic Ocean during a past…
Biofertilizers change plants’ natural microbes
Scientists tested how mixtures of plant-growth-promoting bacteria affect the microbial communities of different sunflower varieties for use…
Scientists probe plant-based soil cleanup
Researchers tested plant-based soil remediation methods and found that adding beneficial microbes to copper-contaminated soil improved…
Hidden bacteria dominate Earth’s deep soils
Scientists showed that an understudied bacterium is widespread in deep soils worldwide and adapted to life with very little energy.
Why do deep-sea microbes have such small appetites?
The deep sea is one of Earth’s largest reservoirs of carbon, yet microbes don’t consume very much of it. Researchers showed that this is…
Gases power diverse microbial life in caves
Researchers found that cave-dwelling microbes use atmospheric trace gases like methane and carbon monoxide as sources of energy and carbon.
Spacecraft microbes “sleep” to survive sterilization
Researchers discovered a bacterium in NASA’s spacecraft assembly facilities that can enter a hibernation state to survive planetary…
Lava tubes contain unknown “microbial dark matter”
Researchers discovered lava tubes on Mauna Loa containing previously unknown microorganisms with metabolisms and communities that could…
Do microbes prefer biodegradable plastic?
Researchers found that microbes living on biodegradable plastics have more genes for plastic degradation than those living on traditional…