Beyond peak season: Bacteria in the Arctic seabed are active all year round
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Bacteria in the Arctic seabed are active all year round, researchers find
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IMAGE: In summer, the sun never sets on Spitsbergen; in winter, it never makes it above the horizon. Nevertheless, the bacterial community on the sandy bottom of the sea does not. view more
Credit: Katrin Knittel
A relaxing vacation on the beach frees us from many of the worries of everyday life. But the sand not only cleans the head and soul of vacationers - it also cleans the seawater.
Coastal sands are so-called biocatalytic filters. Hundreds of thousands of bacteria live on each grain of sand, and they process, for example, nitrogen and carbon from the seawater that flows through the sands. In this way, the sands act like giant, purifying filters. Much of what the seawater washes into the ground does not come out again.
Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology
A relaxing vacation on the beach frees us from many of the worries of everyday life. But the sand not only cleans the head and soul of vacationers – it also cleans the seawater.
Coastal sands are so-called biocatalytic filters. Hundreds of thousands of bacteria live on each grain of sand, and they process, for example, nitrogen and carbon from the seawater that flows through the sands. In this way, the sands act like giant, purifying filters. Much of what the seawater washes into the ground does not come out again.
A study by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, Germany, published in the journal ISME Communications, now shows that the bacteria living on the sand are very different from the ones in seawater. And while the bacterial community in the water is constantly changing and adapting with the changing seasons, the sand bacteria are rather indifferent to spring, summer, fall and winter.