Research report 2016 - Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology
Digestive enzymes in the oceans and the human gut
Authors
Hehemann, Jan-Hendrik; Schlösser, Manfred
Departments
MARUM MPG Brückengruppe Marine Glykobiologie
Summary
The Research Group for Marine Glycobiology studies the microbial degradation of organic matter by bacteria. The substrates originate from marine algae. These algae convert huge amounts of carbon dioxide by photosynthesis into sugars, thereby forming the nutritional basis for heterotrophic organisms. On a global scale marine micro algae form the same amount of reduced carbon compounds like the whole biomass of terrestrial plants. And as a side effect they also produce half of the atmospheric oxygen.