Recent Deep-Sea Research from New MBL Scientist Emil Ruff

Welcome to Emil Ruff, who has joined the Marine Biological Laboratory as an Assistant Scientist in the Ecosystems Center and the Bay Paul Center.

The Ruff lab studies microbial life in deep-sea ecosystems, where light doesn't penetrate and energy is scarce. To thrive in this environment, most microbes collaborate and develop complex food webs. The video below spotlights his recent research on the development of a deep-sea microbiome that consumes methane -- a greenhouse gas if it reaches the atmosphere.

"If we want these organisms to keep eating the methane before it enters the water column or atmosphere, we should probably protect those ecosystems from bottom trawling or other anthropogenic impacts," Ruff says.

Here is a short interview describing our work at Håkon Mosby mud volcano, recently published @ISMEJournal https://t.co/4gM8P1eQPl Cold seep ecosystems develop very slow and need to be protected from human impact! @MarineMicrobio @deepcarb @MethaneNet @deepbiosphere @MBLScience pic.twitter.com/8cT3YJVr0w

— RuffLab (@TheRuffLab) January 24, 2019

The video is by the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology.