Bacterial degradation and disaggregation of marine detritus

1. Colonization. Searching for food, bacteria colonize particles of marine detritus.

2. Proliferation & communication. Bacteria produce acylated homoserine lactones, or AHLs (small squiggles) Bacteria send out chemicals (AHLs) to sense if other bacteria are in the vicinitya microbial equivalent of sending out Tweets to organize a block party.

3. Threshold population. Bacteria begin to proliferate. The concentration of AHLs rises.