Newly discovered marine microbe could help fight climate change

The single-cell organism has the potential to naturally absorb carbon

Scientists have discovered a new marine microbe that could be pivotal in the fight against climate change.

The tiny, single-cell organism discovered by researchers in Sydney, Australia has the capacity to naturally absorb carbon and can photosynthesise, hunt, and eat. It is plentiful in marine environments around the world.

“This could be a game-changer in the way we think about carbon and the way it moves in the marine environment,” the study’s senior author Martina Doblin told Newsweek.

The existence of the marine microbe suggests to scientists that the ocean has a greater capacity to absorb and store carbon than is currently believed.

The potentially important marine microbe in question operates by secreting a mucus-like substance called “exopolymer mucosphere,” rich in carbon, that then traps other microbes. After consuming some of the trapped prey, the microbe ejects the substance — which sinks back down into the ocean’s carbon-cycling system.

It is the potential to move carbon from the ocean’s surface to deep within the ocean that could be particularly useful in regulating the climate. Researchers have estimated that the newly-discovered microbe species could sink up to 0.15 gigatons of carbon each year.

This potential new species will not likely solve the world’s climate problems on its own.

Scientists believe that the world needs to remove 10 gigatons of carbon from the atmosphere yearly to prevent catastrophic global warming; this microbial species, at best, could help remove just over 1 percent of that goal.

But researchers are hopeful that there may be similar marine microbial species that could help with carbon sequestration as well.

“The implication is that there’s potentially more carbon sinking in the ocean than we currently think and that there is perhaps greater potential for the ocean to capture more carbon naturally through this process, in places that weren’t thought to be potential carbon sequestration locations,” Ms Doblin told Newsweek.