The is the first time when a study has shown a link between sea floor and the microbial processes in the upper ocean and provided a deep insight into how natural gas is interacting with microbes. While that amount is still a lot of oil, it is spread out in time over an entire year, so is much less devastating to marine life than oil from a huge spill. Scientists will continue to research the interactions between marine life and oil, and will look deeper into which types of phytoplankton benefit the most from this situation. "This is the beginning...