December 10, 2020: Arctic Research
Image courtesy of The Hidden Ocean, Arctic 2005 Exploration, NOAA-OE. Download larger version (jpg, 3.0 MB).
Scientists gather samples from a sea ice melt pond in the middle of the Arctic ‘night,’ during a 2005 expedition. During the Mapping the Uncharted Diversity of Arctic Marine Microbes project in 2015, scientists analyzed microbes from samples such as these.
The Arctic Ocean is home to an extraordinary diversity of life, including the unseen majority: microbes. Algae, heterotrophic protists, bacteria, archaea, and viruses all live together in a hidden ecosystem that recycles nutrients within Arctic seawater, sediment, and sea ice, making possible the amazing bounty of macroscopic life found there.
Though this microscopic ecosystem is usually hidden from our view, new technologies allow us to paint a much more accurate portrait of these microbes than has ever been possible before. As we explore these communities, we learn about how they survive in extreme environments, we discover their roles in breaking down contaminants, and we begin to understand how these communities may be threatened by a warming climate.
From: Mapping the Uncharted Diversity of Arctic Marine Microbes Mission Plan.