engleski

Self-organization of marine organic matter into vesicles

The macroscopic gel phase (mucilage) appears episodically in the northern Adriatic Sea covering tens of square kilometers of sea surface. Current views leave no doubt on phytoplankton production as a proximal source of polymers constituting the gel network, but the mechanism leading to its rapid production remains unknown. We propose the biophysical scenario of mucilage event featuring self-organization of biopolymers into microparticles, marine vesicles that under specific conditions transform to giant-gel by a phase transition process. Marine vesicles were identified using in situ adhesion sensor and AFM imaging (Fig. 1). The electrochemical adhesion sensor was developed based on our fundamental studies in the fields of surface electrochemistry and biophysics.

marine organic matter; marine vesicles; self-organization

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