This WWII shipwreck hosts an underwater kingdom of bacteria
The Pappy Lane shipwreck, as seen from above. (John McCord/)Thousands of vessels are submerged in the waters off the coast of North Carolina. The Outer Banks, with its strong currents and storms that create treacherous conditions for ships, is nicknamed “The Graveyard of the Atlantic.” However, many of these wrecks have taken on new duties by providing valuable habitat for fish and other marine animals—as well as hordes of microscopic lifeforms. When scientists recently investigated the microbial inhabitants of a single shipwreck in the shallow waters near Hatteras Island, they identified thousands of different species of bacteria.“They all play a different role; they’re all doing something different for the environment and community,” says Erin Field, a microbiologist at East Carolina University in Greenville. Field and her colleagues, who reported the findings today in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology, found bacteria that hasten corrosion as well as species that may help...