"It's somewhat shocking to think of something like three chipmunks attaching themselves to an elephant and taking it down." -PETER FRANKS, a professor of biological oceanography in the Integrative Oceanography Division at Scripps, on the identification of tiny bacteria that could spell the end each year of harmful algal blooms, also known as "red tide." The single-celled swimming plankton that make up red tide are 25-30 times the size of the deadly nonswimming bacteria. Yet Franks and the coauthors of a recent study published in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology identified the tiny bacteria clusters, which have been located in both polar and temperate oceans worldwide and are known as Roseobacter-Clade Affiliated ("RCA cluster") bacteria. These bacteria attach themselves a few at a time to the individual plankton, slowing their swimming speed, and eventually killing them. Although scientists' understanding of red tides is primitive-"We don't even know how they start," Franks says-the role of the RCA clusters as red tide killers could mitigate its harmful effects. (SOURCE: Scripps Institution of Oceanography)
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