Mysterious methane-eating microbes in the sea are 'helping to keep Earth cool'
Microbes in the ocean are helping to keep our planet's temperature stable by preventing greenhouse gas methane from bubbling out of the sea, research has shown.
In recent years, researchers have found more and more methane beneath the seafloor, yet very little ever leaves the oceans and gets into the atmosphere.
Harvard University scientists found that the methane is being consumed rapidly by communities of microbes, preventing it from escaping.
Peter Girguis, professor of organismic and evolutionary biology at Harvard, said: "The microbes in these carbonate rocks are acting like a methane bio filter consuming it all before it leaves the ocean."
Unlike many other types of rocks, these carbonate rocks are porous, creating channels that are home to a very dense community of methane-consuming microbes.
During a 2015 expedition funded by the Ocean Exploration Trust, Girguis discovered a carbonate chimney reef off the coast of southern California at the deep sea site Point Dume.
