Plankton Pack Phosphates

Diatoms, a type of plankton, naturally remove phosphorous from the world’s oceans by storing it in their tiny one-celled bodies, scientists have discovered. The discovery opens up a new realm of research into an element that’s used for reproduction, energy storage and structural materials in every organism.

Ellery Ingall at Georgia Institute of Technology collected organisms and sediments along an inlet near Vancouver Island in British Columbia and found that the microscopic organisms were storing blobs of very dense concentrations of phosphorus called polyphosphates.

"These polyphosphates have been missed in classic studies because they haven’t been recovered by the typical measurement techniques," Ingall said. "No one measured or treated the samples because no one knew they were there - they didn’t even think to look for it."

For a long time, scientists have been unable to account for the difference in the amount of phosphorus that’s in the oceans and the amount that’s washed in from rivers.

"These diatoms are sinking from the top to the bottom of the ocean, and as they’re sinking, they’re transporting the phosphorus in the form of intracellular polyphosphate," Ingall said.

-- Justin Jernigan

Image Credit: Georgia Institute of Technology

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