There is life in the planet’s expanding dead zones, say researchers, who have uncovered a remarkable microbe thriving in toxic waters off the B.C. coast.
The bacteria take up carbon dioxide like a plant, consume sulphide that is deadly to most other life forms, and exhale nitrous oxide which is a potent greenhouse gas.
The microbe may be small but it appears to be an important global player affecting the chemistry of both the atmosphere and the oceans, says lead researcher Steven Hallam, of the University of British Columbia, who likes to point out that it is microbes that “really rule the world.”
More in The Montreal Gazette.