News From the Field
Microbes, By Latitudes and Altitudes, Shed New Light on Life's Diversity

August 11, 2008

Microbial biologists, including the University of Oregon's Jessica Green, may not have Jimmy Buffett's music from 1977 in mind, but they are changing attitudes about evolutionary diversity on Earth, from oceanic latitudes to mountainous altitudes. They are showing that temperature primarily drives the richness of bacterial diversity in oceans, and that life--plant and microbial--by altitude in the Rocky Mountains may be close, but not exactly, to what biologists have theorized for years. Full Story

Source
University of Oregon

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