News archive for Department of Biological Sciences (BIO)

CGB will be taking an active role in an Astrobiology summer school addressing these issues 29 June-13 July 2009. Professor Nils-Kåre Birkeland will be one of the lecturers, lecturing on the "Genetics of thermophiles" and the "Molecular basis of the stability of biomoleculees in hot environments". Researcher Ida Helene Steen and research assistant Solveig Hoem are leading some of the lab courses... Read more

Professor Lise Øvreås is participating in a research cruise in the Lau basin, east of Fiji, where scientists are investigating extreme organisms living around the hydrothermal vents found there.

Written by Friederike Hoffman, Sars Centre. Sponges are major constitutes of coral reef and deep sea communities. They excrete high amounts of ammonium and, due to the activity of associated microorganisms, nitrite and nitrate; these are essential nutrients, and sponges are thus considered as important nutrient sources in the marine ecosystem.

The marine microbial community contributes to almost 50% of the earth’s total carbon production and thus plays a major role in the ecology of our biosphere. But do we understand how it works? Can we predict how it will respond to changes such as those involved in climate change? Increased understanding of the earth’s geo- and bio-sphere, and its bio-geochemical cycles, particularly in marine... Read more

In 2000 during an oceanographic cruise a group of researchers stumbled upon a unique discovery – a completely new kind of hydrothermal vent field.

A book chapter by Vigdis Torsvik and Lise Øvreås... The book is entitled: Microbial diversity, life strategies, and adaptation to life in extreme soils. I: Microbiology of Extreme Soils. Springer 2008 ISBN 978-3-540-74230-2. s. 15-43.