Image: Ship Ballast- Stopping Microbial Stowaways
Caption: Another way human beings might affect cholera's interaction with its ecosystem is through discharge of ship ballast
ORLANDO, FLORIDA--Empty cargo ships take in ballast water to stay stable, but in doing so, they also load their hulls with billions of microorganisms. These critters can wreak ecological havoc when they're set loose at a foreign port. Irradiating ballast water with ultraviolet (UV) light may be a simple way to stop invasive species, according to a study presented here on 21 May at a meeting of the American Society for Microbiology.
Source: Ivor Knight, Associate Professor of Biology
NSF Funded: no
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