Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Bacteria also live in symbiotic and parasitic relationships with plants and animals. Once regarded as plants constituting the class Schizomycetes , bacteria are now classified as prokaryotes . Unlike cells of animals and other eukaryotes , bacterial cells do not contain a nucleus and rarely harbour membrane-bound organelles .
The hydrothermal vent microbial community includes all unicellular organisms that live and reproduce in a chemically distinct area around hydrothermal vents. These include organisms in the microbial mat, free floating cells, or bacteria in an endosymbiotic relationship with animals. Chemolithoautotrophic bacteria derive nutrients and energy ...
Some marine organisms have a symbiosis with bacteria or archaea. Pompeii worms live at great depths by hydrothermal vents at temperatures up to 80 °C (176 °F). They have what appear to be hairy backs, but these "hairs" are actually colonies of bacteria such as Nautilia profundicola, which are thought to afford the worm some degree of insulation.
Marine life, sea life or ocean life is the collective ecological communities that encompass all aquatic animals, plants, algae, fungi, protists, single-celled microorganisms and associated viruses living in the saline water of marine habitats, either the sea water of marginal seas and oceans, or the brackish water of coastal wetlands, lagoons ...
Cyanobacteria have been found to play an important role in terrestrial habitats and organism communities. It has been widely reported that cyanobacteria soil crusts help to stabilize soil to prevent erosion and retain water. [96] An example of a cyanobacterial species that does so is Microcoleus vaginatus.
Water can be broken down into its constituent hydrogen and oxygen by metabolic or abiotic processes, and later recombined to become water again. While the water cycle is itself a biogeochemical cycle, flow of water over and beneath the Earth is a key component of the cycling of other biogeochemicals. [8]
Trichodesmium is an example of cyanobacteria that is capable of fixing nitrogen through an alternative photosynthetic pathway. [10] Other photosynthetic bacterioplankton, including purple and green bacteria, undergo anoxygenic photosynthesis in anaerobic conditions. The pigments synthesized in these organisms are sensitive to oxygen.
Bacteria also live in mutualistic, commensal and parasitic relationships with plants and animals. Most bacteria have not been characterised and there are many species that cannot be grown in the laboratory. The study of bacteria is known as bacteriology, a branch of microbiology.