Microbial Stowaways: Exploring Shipwreck Microbiomes in the Deep Gulf of Mexico

Mission Overview

Stowaways hide aboard a vessel as a means of (free) transportation. During a nine-day expedition on board the R/V Point Sur, scientists from the University of Southern Mississippi, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, and the Naval Research Laboratory discovered and characterized two unexplored, wooden-hulled shipwrecks in the Gulf of Mexico, and studied the microbial stowaways living secretly on and around them, to explore how shipwrecks shape the microbial biodiversity of the deep sea.

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