SO279 – Secrets of the seabed

Deep sea sediments cover almost two thirds of the planet’s surface, yet they remain mostly unexplored and mysterious. Differently from what was thought in the past, they host greatly biodiverse communities associated to both soft and rocky substrates. From cold water corals (soft corals with no calcareous structure) to holothurians (sea cucumbers), from shrimps to […]

SO279 – It all started with the dinosaurs

Not only dinosaurs, but also marine phytoplankton and terrestrial plants were deposited and metamorphosed over time into oil. Some of that oil has been made into plastic that eventually made its way into the ocean. The basic chemical building blocks of plastic are well-known in nature, but anthropogenic long chain polymers are extremely difficult for […]