New paper out in the lab from Travis Mellett on how iron impacts organic carbon consumption by heterotrophic bacteria in the mesopelagic www.nature.com/articles/s41...

When I think about extraterrestrial life, I am so reminded of how our assumptions limit our thinking. Brilliant cartoon by Beatrice the Biologist . Gregory Benford taught me that we aren’t as smart as we think we are. @beatricebiologist

The UW Astrobiology Program is hosting a public lecture series in April 2025 to celebrate our 25th Anniversary! Registration is FREE but required for both in person and zoom attendance. For more info on the talks, to register, and to learn more about our speakers: www.eventbrite.com/e/uw-astrobi...

I’m so excited to announce that my paper on the structure of marine copper ligands is published in JASMS! Thanks to all of my awesome co-authors 🎉 pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....

Detection and Structural Elucidation of Copper Binding Tri- and Tetrapyrrole Ligands Produced by the Marine Diatom Phaeodactylum Tricornutum

In seawater, most dissolved copper (Cu) is complexed by organic ligands, many of which are thought to be produced by phytoplankton. Although very little is known about the composition and structure of...

pubs.acs.org

🌊 🧪 Obviously, the fun-seeker is the limiting nutrient, and the monster is the plant. - Broecker and Peng (1982), Tracers in the Sea

The most iconic figure in the environmental sciences is the Keeling Curve, the CO₂ record from Mauna Loa, Hawaii. @noaa.gov had a wonderful site where you could visualize and download these data, and now it's just gone. These data belong to us and we should not let this happen!

Some pictures so far from our cruise over the Australian-Antarctic Ridge We’re looking for iron sources to a massive phytoplankton bloom that occurs here every year 🌊🐧

New GEOTRACES Science Highlight! Biological production of ligands influences iron chemistry in hydrothermal systems Paper first author: Colleen L. Hoffman, U. Washington Read it here: www.geotraces.org/biological-l... @rmbundy.bsky.social #OceanScience

Thanks Randie! It was fun to think about how whales (and their gut microbes) concentrate and transform iron + copper during feeding. We found high numbers, 40+ new copper compounds, and bioavailable iron. Lots of questions, but I think gut bacteria are important to ecosystem metal cycling! 🐋💩

Randie Bundy@rmbundy.bsky.social · 2y ago

New paper out led by @pmonreal.bsky.social showing that iron from whale poop is organic and bioavailable. He also found REALLY high copper bound by strong ligands, rendering it not toxic. Such a fun study with help from amazing coauthors! urldefense.com/v3/__https:/...

The journey has started! On our way to New Zealand and then the Southern Ocean to study the phytoplankton bloom above the Australian Antarctic ridge!

Microbial strong organic-ligand production is tightly coupled to iron in hydrothermal plumes bg.copernicus.org/articles/21/... #jcampubs 🌊

Microbial strong organic-ligand production is tightly coupled to iron in hydrothermal plumes

Abstract. Hydrothermal vents have emerged as important sources of iron to seawater, yet only a subset of this iron is soluble and persists long enough to impact the deep-ocean iron inventory. The long...

bg.copernicus.org

Excited to share a new paper led by Colleen Hoffman, me, @rmbundy.bsky.social, and other awesome co-authors is finally out. We find strong ligands coupled to iron in hydrothermal plumes, detect putative siderophores, and identify some siderophore producers! 🌊🧪 bg.copernicus.org/articles/21/...

Microbial strong organic-ligand production is tightly coupled to iron in hydrothermal plumes

Abstract. Hydrothermal vents have emerged as important sources of iron to seawater, yet only a subset of this iron is soluble and persists long enough to impact the deep-ocean iron inventory. The long...

bg.copernicus.org

By now, I made three Earth ⚒️ and Marine 🌊 Sciences 🧪 Starter Packs: Paleoenvironmental researchers: bsky.app/starter-pack... Scientific Drilling ( #IODP / #ICDP ) researchers: bsky.app/starter-pack... Marine biogeochemistry researchers: bsky.app/starter-pack... One of them may be interesting.

ironic to be fleeing to an app called bluesky during the time of the year when the sun sets at 4pm, but howdy everybody!