The discovery could improve understanding of how the ocean shapes Earth’s climate.
The discovery could improve understanding of how the ocean shapes Earth’s climate.
The Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica plays an outsize role in global climate, largely thanks to tiny, drifting organisms called plankton that soak up carbon. Researchers recently completed the most comprehensive survey to date of DNA associated with these microbes. The survey paves the way for a better understanding of their role in climate change.
“We wanted to better understand microbial diversity in the [Southern Ocean], because those microbes affect the carbon cycle in different ways,” said Nicolas Cassar, Lee Hill Snowdon Bass Chair at the Nicholas School of the Environment, who collaborated with an international team on the research.
For example, certain microscopic marine organisms called phytoplankton are responsible for half the photosynthesis on Earth, meaning they take up a substantial amount of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Read More: Duke University
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