Posted on 04/18/2010 7:22:03 PM PDT by Fractal Trader
Gargantuan whales and hefty cephalopods are typically thought of as the classic marine mammoths, but they might have to make way for the mighty microbes, which constitute 50 to 90 percent of the oceans' total biomass, according to newly released data.
These tiny creatures can join together to create some of the largest masses of life on the planet, and researchers working on the decade-long Census of Marine Life project found one such seafloor mat off the Pacific coast of South America that is roughly the size of Greece.
A single liter of seawater, once thought to contain about 100,000 microbes, can actually hold more than one billion microorganisms, the census scientists reported. But these small creatures don't just live in the water column or on the seafloor. Large communities of microscopic animals have even been discovered more than one thousand meters beneath the seafloor. Some of these deep burrowers, such as loriciferans, are only a quarter of a millimeter long.
"Far from being a lifeless desert, the deep sea rivals such highly diverse ecosystems as tropical rainforests and coral reefs," Pedro Martinez Arbizu, of the German Center for Marine Biodiversity Research and leader of the Census of the Diversity of Abyssal Marine Life, said in a prepared statement.
(Excerpt) Read more at scientificamerican.com ...
How is its credit rating?
Microbes iz taken ovuh.
How is its credit rating.
Better than Greece I would bet.
Bush’s fault.
Probably more than that since many didn't return their census forms.
Who knew microbes could be so cuddly?
Is it the mat or the microbes that are the size of Greece?
If the latter, I suggest calling them microbes is inappropriate.
Makes you want to get up and wash some underwear, doesn't it?
Don’t tell the demos. Soros will buy diving masks for ACORN & by november they’ll all be registered.
Something has to break down all that fish poop. I hope those microbes don’t produce carbon dioxide. They might destroy the planet.
Someone needs to clean that floor, it’s disgusting.
How can a microbe be the size of Greece?
I’ve seen restaurants like that.
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