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Scientists Identify Core Skin Bacterial Community in Humpback Whales

By Guest PostApril 2, 2014Naturealaska, american samoa, amy apprill, bering sea, bugs, caroline albertin, clifton ragsdale, core, eleni panagopoulou, hawaii, hox genes, Humpback whales, mammals, marathousa, michael labarbera, michael moore, nicholas thompson, north atlantic, north pacific, oceanographic institution, octopus bimaculoides, octopus genome, South Pacific, tracy mincer, two spot octopus, vangelis tourloukis, whoi, woods hole

Results Could Aid Future Efforts to Monitor Health

Bacteria are invisible to the naked eye, but they reside on nearly every surface humans encounter—including the skin. Uncovering the role these microorganisms play in human health is a major focus of research in skin microbiology, but little is known about the identity or function of skin bacteria in other mammals.

In a paper published in the open access journal PLOS ONE, researchers at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and colleagues identified a core skin bacterial community that humpback whales share across populations, which could point to a way to assess the overall health of these endangered marine mammals. (more…)

Is There Really a Giant Island of Plastic in the Pacific Ocean?

Make no mistake about it: plastic waste is a huge problem and one that has been posing a very serious threat to our oceans for decades. What’s worse is that there hasn’t been any real strides made into solving the problem; while recycling and better waste disposal are on the up, so is our rate of plastic consumption. Around the world, we still only recycle around 1% of our unwanted plastic – an alarming amount of the remained ends up in landfill, and a depressing 10% of it ends up in the world’s oceans. (more…)

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Scientists Identify Core Skin Bacterial Community in Humpback Whales

Is There Really a Giant Island of Plastic in the Pacific Ocean?