Oxygen-less Microbes

                       

            Ever thought of the possibility of any type of organism to live under water? Well if you did; that thought was indeed true. Dr. Roy, a geomicrobiologist fro the university of Aarhus had gathered a sample of a high concentrated layer of sediment under the sea; about 100 feet below the surface. The location this took place was on the north pacific gyre off Hawaii. As they were gathering their samples, they were hoping to find any microbes or even tracks of microbes existing 100 feet below surface. Unable to gather any specific organism or microbe, they were able to find signs of microbes that were living in the layer that had retrieved. Dr. Roy had colleagues help him with his research, especially with the calculations on how much oxygen should have been present from the sample.

 “Microbes just observed used just 0.001 femtomoles of oxygen per day.” In other words the amount of oxygen they consume for 10 years is equal to the amount a human inhales in a single breath. As the research goes on, it was mentioned that these organisms have been part of our lives longer than we can imagine; way before the dinosaurs went extinct. The researcher mentioned that they are really slow at consuming oxygen; which turns into energy for the microbes, are at minimal energy levels. Going on to say they are living at the border of hunger limits. As these microbes are fairly new to any research and yet so hard to study for their slow movement. Makes all of these comments to be assumptions. Not actually being facts. Thus forcing the reader to believe one side and forcing bias. There may be other things deep down in the sea that could potentially have caused the oxygen numbers to be different as well. Not only microbes. It is hard to tell because studies have not gone far into the waters. Could be something to look forward in the future.

Picture link: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2012/05/22/science/22OBMICRO2/22OBOX2-articleInline.jpg

Article link: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/22/science/deep-sea-microbes-that-barely-breathe.html?_r=0