Ocean Sustainability
Over 70% of the earth is covered in water, which serves as a vital resource human subsistence. Contamination and acidification pose major threats to aquatic health and biodiversity. Microbes offer a promising solution in their ability to breakdown contamination from oil spills and plastics. Applied microbiologists can play a significant part in understanding biodiversity, contributing to solutions, and encouraging stewardship.
Applied Microbiology International unveils 11 new Global Ambassadors
AMI has announced that it has recruited 11 new Global Ambassadors from around the world. Global ambassadors have a range of expertise and knowledge across regions and sectors, and support and promote applied microbiology and our organisation.
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Reef pest feasts on cyanobacteria ‘sea sawdust’
Researchers have uncovered an under-the-sea phenomenon where coral-destroying crown-of-thorns starfish larvae have been feasting on blue-green algae bacteria known as ‘sea sawdust’.
Massive harmful algal bloom in the Arctic prompts real-time advisories to western Alaskan communities
A summer 2022 research cruise that detected a massive and highly toxic harmful algal bloom (HAB) in the Bering Strait has provided an example of science that utilized new technology to track a neurotoxic HAB and protect remote communities in Alaska.
‘Sacrifice’ of virus data clears the path to open a disease discovery pipeline
Researchers are analysing viruses in human populations – and on coral reefs – to build a robust method of identifying viruses in all animals, plants and environments, and to show the flexibility of the pipeline for future research.
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Once-subtropical Vibrio infections on the move along coastlines
As new stretches of coastline become vulnerable to potential Vibrio outbreaks in a warming aquatic environment, Applied Microbiology International member Elizabeth Archer examines how human health is inextricably linked with ocean health.
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Study reveals environmental impact of artificial sweeteners on water microbes
A new study demonstrates how sucralose affects the behavior of cyanobacteria — an aquatic photosynthetic bacteria — and diatoms, microscopic algae that account for more than 30% of the primary food production in the marine food chain.
Micromachines are powered by tiny, active microorganisms
Researchers have created tiny, vehiclelike structures which can be maneuvered by microscopic algae. The algae are caught in baskets attached to the micromachines, which have been carefully designed to allow them enough room to continue swimming.
Giant clams - and their algae - may hold the answers to making solar energy more efficient
Researchers present an analytical model for determining the maximum efficiency of photosynthetic systems based on the geometry, movement, and light-scattering characteristics of giant clams.
Study illuminates cues algae use to ‘listen’ to their environment
Plants have long been known to release chemicals to respond to stress and relay information to their neighbors. A team of scientists from Bigelow Laboratory have shown that glaucophytes, a small group of single-celled algae distantly related to plants, appear to have the same penchant for chemical communication. This suggests ...
Long-standing marine mystery solved: How algae get nitrogen to grow
In a new study, scientists have shed light on an unexpected partnership: a marine diatom and a bacterium that can account for a large share of nitrogen fixation in vast regions of the ocean.
We should help coral microbial symbionts evolve heat tolerance in the lab, researchers say
Researchers discuss the potential of improving corals’ chances by inducing the evolution of heat tolerance in their symbionts—the mutualistic microbes that provide corals with nutrients in exchange for shelter and that are expelled during coral bleaching.
Novel method for synthesis of coral-derived compound offers hope for non-toxic fouling agents
Researchers have developed a novel total synthesis method for scabrolide F, a natural compound derived from corals, and revealed its antifouling properties.
Mashed up purple marine bacteria make an excellent eco-friendly fertilizer
New research published in npj Sustainable Agriculture reports that biomass made from the purple photosynthetic marine bacterium Rhodovulum sulfidophilum is an excellent nitrogen fertilizer.
Model shows how plankton survive in a turbulent world
A researcher studying how particles move in turbulent fluids has created a model including various hydrodynamic factors to study how these particles handle and even utilise turbulence.
Researchers develop novel AI algorithm for analyzing microfossils
Microfossil analysis allows us to map the subsurface and understand past geological times. In research labs all over the world geologists spend countless hours looking through the microscope identifying and counting microfossils extracted from sedimentary rock below the seabed.
New approach to measuring ‘healthy microbiomes’ in nature and the gut
Focusing on four common diseases – diabetes, heart disease, depression and bowel cancer – new research provides insights into the importance of a healthy microbiome balance in the human gut and in the environment.
Previously uncharacterized parasite uncovered in fish worldwide
Using genome reconstruction, scientists have unveiled a once ‘invisible’ fish parasite present in many marine fish world-wide that belongs to the apicomplexans, one of the most important groups of parasites at a clinical level.
Giant deep-sea vent tubeworm symbionts use two carbon fixation pathways to grow at record speeds
New research sheds light on how a giant hydrothermal vent tubeworm living in the deep ocean coordinates the two functional carbon fixation pathways used by its symbiotic bacteria to sustain themselves and their host.
Buckling point reveals secrets of cyanobacteria locomotion
Scientists investigating cyanobacteria locomotion have found that the filamentous threads start to kink and buckle at a length of around 150 micrometres.
Marine heatwaves devastate red gorgonians in the Medes Islands
The increase in the frequency and intensity of marine heatwaves in recent decades is one of the effects of global climate change.
Upper surface of coastal waters can accumulate bacteria and antibiotics
Antibiotics in the uppermost water surface, known as the sea surface microlayer, can significantly affect the number of bacteria present and contribute to the adaptation of marine bacteria against widely used antibiotics.
Scientists unravel drivers of the global zinc cycle in our oceans
The important role of the Southern Ocean in global biological processes and the carbon cycle has been confirmed by a study that, for the first time based on field evidence, reveals the underappreciated role of inorganic zinc particles in these cycles.
Discovery of ancient microfossil sheds light on adaptive evolution of sulfate-reducing bacteria
A 518-million-year-old microbial fossil from China identified as an ancient sulfate-reducing bacterium sheds light on the adaptive evolution of sulfate-reducing bacteria in response to Earth’s oxygenation events.
