Scientists confirm existence of marine vitamin “deserts”

C-MORE scientists and technicians recover an array on the UH Research Vessel Ka'iminkai-O-Kanaloa. Image courtesy of Paul Lethaby, SOEST

Using a newly developed analytical technique, a team of researchers from the US and Mexico was the first to report long-hypothesized vitamin B deficient zones in the ocean. “An important result of our study is that the concentrations of the five major B vitamins vary independently and appear to have different sources and sink,’ said co-author David Karl, Oceanography professor and C-MORE director. “This could lead to complex interactions among populations of microbes, from symbiosis to intense competition.”
Read more about it at in the International Business Times, UH News, EurekAlert!, and in the SOEST press release PDF; see the paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).