Marine microorganisms

Definition of Marine microorganisms: Marine microorganisms (or microbes) comprise all microscopic life in the sea. This is the common definition for Marine microorganisms, other definitions can be discussed in the article

Notes

The diversity of marine microbial organisms is very high. A non-exhaustive classification is shown in Fig. 1. Microbes, mainly bacteria and protists, account for around 70% of the total marine biomass. Microorganisms are crucial to nutrient recycling in ecosystems as they act as decomposers. They are also responsible for nearly all photosynthesis that occurs in the ocean, as well as the cycling of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and other nutrients and trace elements. Marine microorganisms sequester large amounts of carbon and produce about half of the world's oxygen.

Fig. 1. Classification of marine microorganisms.

Related articles

Marine Plankton

Nutrient conversion in the marine environment

External sources

See the Wikipedia article Marine microorganisms for more details.

References

The main author of this article is Job Dronkers Please note that others may also have edited the contents of this article. Citation: Job Dronkers (2022): Marine microorganisms. Available from http://www.coastalwiki.org/wiki/Marine_microorganisms [accessed on 3-12-2024] For other articles by this author see Category:Articles by Job Dronkers For an overview of contributions by this author see Special:Contributions/Dronkers J