Skip to main content
Climate
Search

Main navigation

  • Climate 101
    • What We Know
    • What Can Be Done
    • Climate Primer
  • Explore
    • Explainers
    • Ask MIT Climate
    • Podcast
    • For Educators
  • MIT Action
    • News
    • Events
    • Resources
  • Search
MIT

Main navigation

  • Climate 101
    • What We Know
    • What Can Be Done
    • Climate Primer
  • Explore
    • Explainers
    • Ask MIT Climate
    • Podcast
    • For Educators
  • MIT Action
    • News
    • Events
    • Resources
  • Search
PostMarch 9, 2017

Prochlorococcus: The microbe supplying 5% of the world’s photosynthesis

Penny Chrisholm is an expert on Prochlorococcus. In fact, MIT’s professor of Biological Oceanography has dedicated the last 30 years of the career to researching this incredible microbe.

Prochlorococcus is an intriguing organism. It influences our climate and may have even fueled the surge of early life in the oceans hundreds of millions of years ago, according to new research by Chrisholm and her team.

Learn more about Professor Chrisholm and her favourite microbe here.

PHOTO: N. WATSON AND L. THOMPSON, MIT
by ClimateX Team
Topics
Atmosphere
Biodiversity
Food, Water & Agriculture

Related Posts

PostJune 12, 2025

A Complete Picture of Sustainability

MIT Spectrum
Example of a modeling map.
PostJune 11, 2025

As labor costs rise, AI is learning to farm

MIT Climate
Agricultural workers place stakes in the ground among jalapeño plants.
PostJune 8, 2025

Crop insurance costs taxpayers billions. But it only benefits big farms and...

MIT Climate
A person in a blue shirt and a baseball cap looks at a tractor that's installing fenceposts in a field.
PostJune 5, 2025

How will U.S. land use change by 2050?

MIT Center for Sustainability Science and Strategy
How will U.S. land use change by 2050?

MIT Climate News in Your Inbox

 
 

MIT Groups Log In

Log In

Footer

  • About
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Accessibility
  • Contact
MIT Climate Project
MIT
Communicator Award Winner
Communicator Award Winner