Ocean food source lives by day, dies by night

Cyanobacteria’s cycle provides stability for food webs

One of the oceans’ most abundant food sources lives and dies like clockwork.

Hundreds of millions of the cyanobacteria Prochlorococcus grow in every liter of seawater during the day, and about the same number are killed or consumed every night, scientists report online June 15 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.