Microbes in Aquifers Beneath Mid-Atlantic Ridge 'Chow Down' on Carbon

Peter Girguis and Sunita Shah Walter, University of Delaware (former Postdoc in Girguis lab), led a research team that has shown underground aquifers near the undersea Mid-Atlantic Ridge act like natural biological reactors, pulling in cold, oxygenated seawater, and allowing microbes to consume more refractory carbon than scientists believed. The study's results published in Nature Geoscience increase our knowledge of the carbon cycle. The research was supported by NSF's Division of Ocean Sciences. Media:  NSF, Science Daily

*Image courtesy Girguis Lab, Harvard University