Who does not enjoy walking on the seashore feeling the fresh
air the wave sounds and above all the smell of the sea?
There is a process by which this fragrance is produced.
Can you explain how ?
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A trip to the beach means sand between your toes, salt water in your mouth and that aromatic sea air in your nose. But what gives the ocean air that delightful and distinctive smell? Scientists have not known the full story until now.
The smell comes from a gas produced by genes recently identified by researchers in ocean-dwelling bacteria.
Understanding how the odorous gas is produced could be important because it is implicated in cloud formation over the ocean and helps some animals find food.
Knowledge gap
Scientists had long known that bacteria could be found consuming decay products and producing a gas called dimethyl sulfide, or DMS, in places where plankton and marine plants such as seaweed were dying. This pungent gas is what gives ocean air “sort of a fishy, tangy smell,” said study author Andrew Johnston of the University of East Anglia
Bacteria decompose the algal osmolyte dimethylsulphoniopropionate (DMSP) into into a biogenic gas (biologically generated) called dimethylsulfide, DMS as a part of the global sulfur cycle. DMSP is produced by many marine algae as an osmotic solute and an antioxidant. The clevage of DMSP into DMS is a major source of sulfur to the atmosphere. Atmospheric sulfur is a part of the cloud formation cycle and aids in reflecting high energy solar radiation.
http://www.csa.com/discoveryguides/dimethyl/overview.php
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2002Natur.418..317S
http://faculty.disl.org/rkiene.html
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v418/n6895/full/nature00851.html