What is it about?
Enzymes, one indicator of microbial activity, and microbes were found active in Basalt rocks. Basalt covers a large area of the ocean floor. This is one of the first papers documenting the presence and activity within rocks of microbes important in cycling of nutrients and minerals in the ocean.
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Why is it important?
Basaltic rocks cover a large area of the ocean floor and the ocean water and nutrients permeate these rocks. Now we know that the basaltic rock microbial is an active environment and has the potential to also modify the ocean waters.
Perspectives
In doing this paper we felt as one would if they were working on the moon. Sampling and experiments are especially challenging in deep ocean areas and we are privileged to be able to have the opportunity to do this work and publish it.
myrna jacobson meyers
University of Southern California
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Extracellular Enzyme Activity and Microbial Diversity Measured on Seafloor Exposed Basalts from Loihi Seamount Indicate the Importance of Basalts to Global Biogeochemical Cycling, Applied and Environmental Microbiology, June 2014, ASM Journals,
DOI: 10.1128/aem.01038-14.
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