Scientists say they had crossed the ocean in a deep sea diving party and came across an undiscovered ecosystem

Sea researchers who examine extreme depths say they have discovered an amazing deep-sea ecosystem of the chemosynthesis life, which is driven by gases that escape from fractures in the ocean bed. The expedition showed that methane-producing microbes and invertebrates are at home under irreconcilable conditions under which the sun’s rays do not achieve according to a new study.

Geochemist Mengran You had 30 minutes in her diving mission when she decided to explore a last section of the trenches between Russia and Alaska, about 5,800 to 9,500 meters (19,000 to 30,000 feet) below the surface of the ocean in the so -called Hadal zone. She said she noticed “amazing creatures”, including different types of mussel and pipe worm, which had never been recorded so deep below the surface.

What you stumbled was an approximately 2,500 kilometer route, from which your team is the deepest known organisms ecosystem that use the chemical connecting methane instead of sunlight to survive. You are a co-lead author of a study that describes the results published on July 30th in the Journal Nature.

The Hadalzone mainly consists of oceanic trenches and hollows – some of the deepest and least researched environments on earth. In these depths “Life needs tricks to survive and thrive there,” said you, professor and researcher at the Institute for Science and Engineering at Deep-Sea at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

One of these tricks lies in bacteria that, according to the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, have developed to live in mussels and pipe worms. The bacteria convert methane and hydrogen sulfide made of cold seepage – cracks in the sea floor, which go through these connections as liquids – into energy and food that the host can usePresent Enable organisms to live with zero-sunlight under conditions.

The discovery suggests that these communities could also exist in other Hadal trenches, you said and opened up opportunities for further research how deep these animals can survive.

Tiefsee ecosystem that is driven by methane

After the analysis of sediment samples collected by the expedition, you and your team stated that they discovered high methane centers. The find was surprising because deep -sea seeds usually contain very low concentrations of the connection.

The scientists put up the hypothesis that microbes that live in the ecosystem, organic substance in the sediments into carbon dioxide and carbon dioxide convert into methane – something that the researchers did not know that microbes did not know. The bacteria living in mussel and pipe worm species use this methane for chemosynthesis to survive, you said.

There was also a revelation. Scientists believed that the chemosynthesic communities so far based on organic substance – as from dead organisms and drift particles of living species – that fell to the ground from the surface of the ocean. But this discovery, you said, shows that these methane-producing microbes also create a local source for organic molecules that can use larger organisms such as mussels for food and energy.

Methane as a carbon containing is part of the carbon cycle. This discovery also shows that the Hadal trenches play a more important role in this cycle than previously assumed, you said.

Scientists have long understood that methane is stored deep in the subduction zone as a compressed liquid, where tectonic plates meet under the sea floor and ultimately released on the bottom of the Hadal ditches by “cold seepers”. After DUS team discovered chemosynthesis at such depths, they assume that the Hadal trenches act not only as reservoirs, but also as recycling centers for methane.

This indicates that “a large amount of carbon remains in the sediments and (recycled by the microorganisms) is recycled”. In fact, scientists recently estimated that sediments of the Hadalzone could follow up to 70 -organically more carbon than the surrounding sea floor. These so -called carbon sinks are of crucial importance for our planet, since methane and carbon dioxide are two large greenhouse gases that drive global warming in the atmosphere.

Further research into ecosystems from Tiefsee

Chemosynthesis communities themselves are not new in science. Earlier investigations have indicated that it was possible for them to thrive at such great depths, said Johanna Weston, an ecologist of the deep -Ocean at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts, which was not involved in the new study. However, it was impressed with the extent of the latest discovery, she told CNN.

In a age of the widespread loss of biological diversity, the determination of new technologies that can withstand high pressure in environments with deep sea in order to document undiscovered organisms, said Weston, who is part of a team that actively researches the deep-sea offshore from Argentina.

Although the Hadal trenches are remote, they are not fully insulated, they added. In 2020, Weston and her colleagues discovered a newly discovered way in the Mariana trench called Eurythenes Plasticus for the microplastic fibers, which was detected in his intestine. And near Puerto Rico, Weston newly identified an isopod that only eats Sargassum, a kind of abundant seatang in the Atlantic, which can sink to the sea floor in just 40 hours. “The deep ocean is very connected to what happens on the surface,” she said.

Researching ecosystems from Tiefsee is only a few decades old and the technology for new discoveries improves. However, you added that it is important for different countries and scientific disciplines to work together on future efforts. The global Hadal Exploration program, which is headed together by the UNESCO and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, aims to do this by creating a network of deep-sea scientists from several countries.

You hope that you and your team can learn more about Hadal -Trench -Ekosysteme by examining how these species have adapted to such extreme depths.

“Although we see the Hadal trench as a very extreme environment, the most inhospitable environment can live there happily there,” said you.

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