Microbiology articles within Nature Geoscience

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  • News & Views |

    The dynamics of polar marine ecosystems are poorly understood. A laser-based space-borne sensor captures annual cycles of phytoplankton biomass in seasonally ice-free polar waters, and provides clues on how growth drives these cycles.

    • Marcel Babin

  • News & Views |

    Sulphur cycling on early Earth is commonly linked to microbial activity. However, sulphur isotope values from 3.2–3.5-billion-year-old rocks indicate a central role for the breakdown of volcanic sulphur dioxide by ultraviolet radiation instead.

    • Boswell Wing

  • Letter |

    Blooms of the nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterium Trichodesmium, which fuel primary production in tropical and subtropical waters, require large quantities of iron. Laboratory incubations suggest that Trichodesmium accelerates the dissolution of iron oxides and dust, increasing the rate of iron uptake.

    • Maxim Rubin
    • , Ilana Berman-Frank
    •  & Yeala Shaked

  • Article |

    Hydrothermal vents along mid-ocean ridge systems host highly productive communities of microbes. Measurements along the Juan de Fuca ridge suggest that subsurface microbes consume hydrogen in low-temperature hydrothermal fluids, before discharge of these fluids at the sea floor.

    • Scott D. Wankel
    • , Leonid N. Germanovich
    •  & Peter R. Girguis

  • Letter |

    Archaea are prevalent in the deep sea, and comprise a major fraction of the biomass in marine sediments. 13C-labelling experiments on the sea floor suggest that benthic archaea use sedimentary organic compounds to construct their membranes.

    • Yoshinori Takano
    • , Yoshito Chikaraishi
    •  & Naohiko Ohkouchi

  • Backstory |

    Nardy Kip, Julia F. van Winden, Huub J. M. Op den Camp and an array of colleagues braved hostile acidic peat bogs around the world in a feat of truly collaborative research.

  • News & Views |

    The formation and burial of calcium phosphate minerals removes large quantities of phosphorus from the ocean. Radiotracer experiments reveal that bacteria in marine sediments mediate the production of these mineral phases at remarkably fast rates.

    • Ellery D. Ingall

  • Letter |

    Organic phosphorus is removed from the ocean by its conversion to phosphorite. Laboratory incubations suggest that bacteria catalyse phosphorite formation, and that the rate of conversion is greatest under anoxic conditions.

    • Tobias Goldhammer
    • , Volker Brüchert
    •  & Matthias Zabel

  • Letter |

    The loss of carbon dioxide from soils increases initially under climate warming, but tends to decline to control levels within a few years. Simulations of the soil-carbon response to warming with a microbial-enzyme model show that a decline in both microbial biomass and the production of degrading enzymes can explain this attenuation response.

    • Steven D. Allison
    • , Matthew D. Wallenstein
    •  & Mark A. Bradford

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