In experiments with the coffee-bean-shaped diatom Amphora coffeaeformis, the scientists proved that diatoms use the nitrate stored in their cells for respiration in the absence of oxygen. The more nitrate the diatom contained, the longer it could survive in darkness where it does not have the possibility to produce oxygen via photosynthesis for its own respiration. A correlation was found between the nitrate that is stored by a diatom and its ability to survive in the absence of sunlight and oxygen. Nitsch, Gaute Lavik, and Peter Stief, scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen cultivated several diatom species in the laboratory to explore the metabolic process that allows the tiny algae to survive in darkness. However, some microalgae, specifically diatoms (unicellular algae with a silicate frustule), are also able to survive in the absence of sunlight and oxygen, for instance, buried in the sea floor.Īnja Kamp, Dirk de Beer, Jana L. They often appear as massive blooms near the sea surface or on the seafloor as greenish-brownish meadows in shallow waters if the sunlight still reaches them. Microalgae often measure only a few hundredths of a millimeter, but due to their vast abundance in the world’s oceans they are responsible for approximately 40% of the marine primary production, i.e., the biomass production via carbon dioxide fixation in the sunlight. Algae in darkness – Survival strategy unraveled
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