Corals that appear healthy are more prone to getting sick when they’re home to too many parasitic bacteria, new research at Oregon State University shows. “The clear relationship we’ve discovered between this kind of bacteria and disease resistance in Caribbean staghorn coral is a crucial piece of the puzzle for coral restoration efforts in that region,” said study co-author Becca Maher, a Ph.D. candidate at Oregon State.
Scientists at Oregon State University have shown that viral infection is involved in coral bleaching – the breakdown of the symbiotic relationship between corals and the algae they rely on for energy.
The endowed professorship recognizes Rebecca Vega Thurber’s distinguished contributions to several fields of microbiology that encompass coral reef ecology, virology, marine disease ecology and metagenomics.
The discovery of the first active methane seep in Antarctica is providing scientists new understanding of the methane cycle and the role methane found in this region may play in warming the planet.
Giovannoni is an internationally recognized microbiologist whose research on microbial diversity, genomics, carbon cycle and ecology in oceanic ecosystems is globally impactful. His research team is deeply engaged in predicting what will happen as the oceans warm and become more acidic.
Two Ph.D. students in the College of Science— Grace Deitzler in microbiology and John Stepanek in integrative biology — are among three OSU students to receive prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) awards in 2020.
Jerri Bartholomew, the Emile F. Pernot Distinguished Professor and Head of the Department of Microbiology was selected as a 2019 Fellow of the American Fisheries Society, the world’s oldest and largest organization dedicated to advancing fisheries science and conserving fisheries resources.
For the first time, scientists have taken a winter sampling of phytoplankton in the North Atlantic. The results revealed that the carbon-absorbing cells were smaller than what scientists expected, meaning a key weapon in the fight against excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere may not be as powerful as previously believed.
"Saving Atlantis" producers followed coral microbiologist Rebecca Vega Thurber and other researchers from Oregon State and around the world who are uncovering the causes of coral decline and looking to find solutions so they don’t completely disappear.
Microbiologists Rebecca Vega Thurber and Grace Klinges have proposed a new genus of bacteria that flourishes when coral reefs become polluted, making them more susceptible to disease.
A National Science Foundation study suggests that localized attempts to curb pollution won’t save coral reefs without a worldwide effort to reduce global warming.
