Today@Dal

From the Canadian Press:

Canadian researchers are taking part in a global project that aims to unlock the secrets of the ocean’s tiniest helpers.

Invisible to the naked eye, microbes include small but mighty bacteria, viruses and algae that scientists say are vital to the sea and beyond.

“They’re basically the little engines behind why the world is ticking,” says Julie LaRoche, a biology professor at Dalhousie University in Halifax and Canada research chair in marine microbial genomics and biogeochemistry.

“When you think of bacteria, you always think about (how) bacteria make you sick, they make your food spoil, but most bacteria are really good for the environment. They have a very specific function, they recycle the nutrients in the soil or in the ocean.

“Also, a lot of bacteria can do photosynthesis … and they’re at the base of the food chain, so they produce all the food that the fish will eat eventually.”

LaRoche is among the researchers taking part in Ocean Sampling Day, a worldwide effort that will see ocean water containing millions of microbes collected on Saturday — the summer solstice — from more than 100 sites around the world, including three in Canada.

Read the rest of this article at the Montreal Gazette website.