Sentences with phrase «billions of microscopic organisms»

As our understanding of the complex role of the microbiome evolves, we are becoming more aware of how critical billions of microscopic organisms are to our pet's health as well as our own.

Not exact matches

The 2.52 billion - year - old sulfur - oxidizing bacteria are described by Czaja as exceptionally large, spherical - shaped, smooth - walled microscopic structures much larger than most modern bacteria, but similar to some modern single - celled organisms that live in deepwater sulfur - rich ocean settings today, where even now there are almost no traces of oxygen.

Taken together, these organisms weigh approximately 10 billion tons and are a major link in the food chain between microscopic plankton and top predators like tuna, birds and marine mammals, according to Simone Baumann - Pickering, an assistant research biologist at the University of California, in San Diego.

Lacking natural predators, salps can often be found clustering in huge swarms, sometimes numbering in the billions, and eating every microscopic organism in their path — producing huge quantities of waste, in the form of large, fast - sinking fecal «pellets,» which are transported (and sequestered) to the deep sea.