Mycorrhizal fungi form underground networks that sustain plant life and help regulate Earth’s climate by drawing carbon into soils.
Despite extreme conditions including freezing temperatures, low water activity, and few nutrients, active microorganisms are thought to inhabit glacial ice, yet little is known about their identities and methods of […]
A quantitative overview of Earth’s biomass has long been lacking, despite its importance for understanding the biosphere. The first global estimate—approximately 550 gigatons of carbon (Gt C)—reveals stark disparities across […]
The Great Oxidation Event (GOE), which marked the transition from an anoxic to an oxygenated atmosphere, occurred 2.4 billion years ago on Earth, several hundreds of millions of years after […]
Microscopic detection and enumeration of microbial biomass provide essential primary information about the biosphere.
One underexplored aspect of microbial growth is the impact of toxic gases transported through the atmosphere. Ammonia is a gas that can supply essential nitrogen but also exert cellular toxicity.
![Reef scene off the coast of St. Croix, USVI [Photo credit: NOAA CCMA Biogeography Branch]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/How-Earths-Biomass-Changed-Over.jpg?resize=1200%2C717&ssl=1)
In a first-of-its-kind study, Stanford researchers have measured how the abundance of ocean life has changed over the past half-billion years of Earth’s history.
Today, at the Living Planet Symposium, ESA revealed the first stunning images from its groundbreaking Biomass satellite mission – marking a major leap forward in our ability to understand how […]
ESA’s groundbreaking Biomass satellite, designed to provide unprecedented insights into the world’s forests and their crucial role in Earth’s carbon cycle, has been launched. The satellite lifted off aboard a […]
This study investigates the resilience of the unicellular green microalga Chlorella vulgaris to extreme atmospheric conditions simulating those of Mars, Jupiter, and Titan.
