Press Releases
Reading ecosystems like a book: AI method reveals hidden patterns in microbial communities in the Warnow
Microbial communities are highly sensitive to environmental changes, yet their enormous diversity makes it difficult to identify ecological patterns. A research team from the IOW has now shown that an AI method originally developed for text analysis can be successfully applied to the analysis of complex environmental samples. The method identified five seasonally successive microbial sub-communities in the Warnow estuary while preserving ecological and functional information just as well as conventional methods – in some cases they even performed better.
A coral’s Swiss Army knife: The numerous powers of cilia
An international research team led by scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen and the IOW investigated how the shape of black corals influences the functions of their cilia. By combining an unusually comprehensive suite of imaging and microsensor techniques, the researchers were able to visualize both, water flow and oxygen transport, from individual cilia to entire coral fragments. They found that the cilia allow corals to create and direct the flow of water around and within them, thus optimising oxygen supply, feeding and internal transport. The study was recently published in Communications Biology.
» Read more … A coral’s Swiss Army knife: The numerous powers of cilia
IOW research uses AI and drones to improve early warning systems for Vibrio bacteria in the Baltic Sea
The presence of the marine bacterium Vibrio vulnificus, which is potentially dangerous to humans, can now be predicted up to five weeks in advance in the Baltic Sea using artificial intelligence (AI). A research team led by the IOW reached this conclusion by combining high-resolution environmental, satellite, and microbiome data in an AI-based analysis. The study, recently published in “Water Research,” shows that this approach allows for a much more precise identification of risk periods than was previously possible.
Inland seas around the world are severely affected by climate change
Under the lead of the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde (IOW), climate simulations were used to investigate how 19 inland seas, including the Baltic Sea, are responding to climate change. The researchers found that they have been warming faster than the global ocean since the 2000s. Projections show that marine heatwaves will affect around 60% of these seas on an annual average basis as early as in the middle of the 21st century. Without adherence to the Paris Agreement targets, up to 90% of these seas would be affected by heatwaves. The study contributes to climate change management practices and was published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment.
» Read more … Inland seas around the world are severely affected by climate change
Amazon river plume: Where microalgae go carnivorous to win
In the vast plume of the Amazon River, microscopic algae adopt a surprisingly flexible survival strategy: They combine photosynthesis with the uptake of organic matter. An international research team led by the IOW has now shown that this so-called mixotrophy becomes the dominant and most successful lifestyle in mature plume waters. The findings, which are now published in Nature’s journal “Communications Biology”, reveal a previously underappreciated mechanism shaping marine food webs and carbon cycling in one of the ocean’s largest river-influenced systems.
» Read more … Amazon river plume: Where microalgae go carnivorous to win
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