Up From the Depths: How Bacteria Capture Carbon in the Twilight
Zone Located between 200 and 1,000 meters below the ocean
surface is a "twilight zone" where insufficient sunlight
penetrates for microorganisms to perform photosynthesis. Details
are now emerging about a microbial metabolic pathway that helps
solve the mystery of how certain bacteria capture carbon in the
dark ocean, enabling a better understanding of what happens to
the carbon that is fixed in the oceans every year. They appear
in the September 2, 2011, edition of Science. Understanding the
flow and processing of carbon in the world's oceans, which cover
70 percent of Earth's surface, is central to understanding
global climate cycles, with many questions remaining unanswered.
Between 200 and 1,000 meters below the ocean surface exists a
"twilight zone" where insufficient sunlight penetrates for
microorganisms to perform photosynthesis. Despite this, it is
known that microbes resident at these depths capture carbon
dioxide that they then use to