Microbes that dwell in nutrient-poor waters use a photopigment called retinal to harvest energy from sunshine at levels at least equal to those stored by chlorophyll-based systems.

Many types of marine plankton are either animal-like or plant-like. But a huge number are both, and they are upending ideas about ocean ecology.

Microbes were living on land as early as 3.22 billion years ago, fossilized rocks show, 500 million years earlier than previously documented.

Researchers devise more-realistic means of forecasting the effects of climate change on complex marine ecosystems.

With samples taken from the crust of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, researchers have discovered where some of the oceans’ dissolved organic carbon winds up.

How one research team studies the effects of ocean conditions on marine life

Contrary to some hypotheses, the organelles did not descend from any known lineage of Alphaproteobacteria, researchers find.

Increases in oceanic populations of these bacteria—both pathogenic and not—is an effect of climate change, scientists show.

The White House announces a new effort to study diverse microbial communities around the planet.

High carbon dioxide levels can irreversibly rev up a cyanobacterium’s ability to fix nitrogen over the long term, a study finds.

Satellite data suggest aerosols from bacteria and phytoplankton seed dense, highly reflective clouds.

Phytoplankton in the Arctic Ocean could amplify warming near the North Pole.

Extremophiles should not be viewed through an anthropocentric lens; what’s extreme for us may be a perfectly comfortable environment for a microbe.

Researchers analyzing samples from the deepest-ever marine drilling expedition identify living microbes, while a team exploring the Arctic finds life thriving below the ice.

Latest analysis of microbial activities in the Gulf of Mexico suggests that gas-rich deepwater plumes following the Deepwater Horizon oil well blowout may have overwhelmed methane-oxidizing bacterial species.

Viruses abound in the world’s oceans, yet researchers are only beginning to understand how they affect life and chemistry from the water’s surface to the sea floor.

Ocean viruses can impact marine ecosystems in several ways.

Researchers find remarkably active bacteria in the Mariana Trench, where they live under pressure 1,000 times greater than at the surface.