“Nobody is speaking for the oceans”, the team leader of an extensive group of marine biologists has declared. Well, it seems that with the new technologies advancing, now somebody can see and analyze the ocean, speech is overrated anyhow. A team of marine biologists has dived into the depths of the ocean with the help of a research schooner, to analyze the secrets of unseen life.
Scientists from around the world have gathered visual data unveiling the hidden depths of the ocean. Besides the fascinating details we are privileged to see and admire in the journal Science, the international team has been studying these samples of plankton that have been collected during a three year global expedition.
This is a Jules Verne worth story which enriches our knowledge in regards to the diversity of sea organisms. It reveals 35.000 species of bacteria, 5.0000 new viruses and 150.000 single celled plants and creatures, meant to shed some light on the future of our environment. So far, the marine biologists have reported the findings that come in spectacular numbers.
For the extensive expeditions, researchers have been working with a 110-foot research schooner known as Tara that has traveled from one end of the planet to another. Tens of thousands of microscopic ocean species have been revealed and can be now analyzed by researchers, scientist and biologists. The data collected from farthest north, in the Arctic, progressing to farthest south, in Antarctica, has been gathered in no less than 4 years.
The overwhelming diversity of the oceans has impressed the entire team of researchers involved, a crew that involved no less than 18 institutions.
Their findings are very precious pieces of information that reveal how global warming is affecting life in its literally deepest forms. Future analysis will allow researchers to build predictive models for what is set to happen to microbial communities as water temperature changes. Every single shift in ocean life affects oxygen and carbon dioxide production.
This extensive project reveals the most complete description of planktonic organisms to date, from viruses, to bacteria and protozoa. Scientists have gathered an encyclopedia of new global ocean findings. Their future analysis will offer a very steady prognoses about the future of our environment.
All these hidden to the naked eye creatures are among the oldest on our planet and their main capacity lays in absorbing the carbon dioxide and make oxygen for a change, breaking down waste and nourish other creatures. They seem to be deeply affected by the temperature changes that become more and more alarming with years.
Planktonic organisms make up 90% of the mass of the entire marine life in the oceans and they are spread across more than 30.000 miles across the world’s oceans. The tiny creatures form the very base of our food chain and produce half of the oxygen we breathe.
Large scale life progresses from small scale organisms and every piece of insightful information on how the details that don’t meet the eye support life are here to uncover huge data about the future of our existence.
Image Source: smithsonianmag.com
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