Collins, T., Early A., Crist D.T.

Ocean Microbe Census Discovers Diverse World of Rare Bacteria

Unpublished Report

2006

A startling revelation about the number of different kinds of bacteria in the deep-sea raises fundamental new questions about microbial life and evolution in the oceans. In a paper published in the USA by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal (July 31, online early edition), scientists reveal marine microbial diversity may be some 10 to 100 times more than expected, and the vast majority are previously unknown, low-abundance organisms theorized to play an important role in the marine environment as part of a "rare biosphere". The study forms part of the International Census of Marine Microbes (ICoMM), a project of the Census of Marine Life, a 10-year global initiative started in year 2000 that now involves more than 1,700 researchers in over 70 countries in efforts to assess and explain the diversity, distribution, and abundance of life in the oceans - past, present, and future.