Underwater voyage finds sea creatures thriving in the deepest parts of the ocean

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In a recently released publication, researchers reported that an undersea expedition had discovered a network of organisms flourishing at the bottom of deep-sea ocean trenches.

The Hadal trenches, also known as the deep-sea trenches, are “some of the Earth’s least explored and understood environments,” according to the researchers. It can be difficult to survive under these harsh conditions due to the crushing pressure, limited food supply, and lack of sunlight. Though nothing is known about signs of larger marine life, scientists are aware that microscopic organisms thrive there.

Using a manned submersible, researchers exploring the Kuril–Kamchatka and Aleutian trenches in the northwest Pacific Ocean discovered mollusks and tubeworms thriving at depths of more than 31,000 feet. About 36,000 feet is the lowest point in the ocean.

There were indications from previous surveys that larger species might reside at such depths. According to Julie Huber, a deep sea microbiologist with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the current discovery validates such assumptions and demonstrates the breadth of the ecosystems.

“Look how many there are, look how deep they are,” said Huber, who was not involved with the research. “They don’t all look the same and they’re in a place that we haven’t had good access to before.”

Many trench-dwellers, both large and little, rely on essential elements like carbon that seep down from higher in the water to survive when there isn’t enough light to produce their own food.

Instead, scientists believe that bacteria in this new network are utilizing carbon that has collected over time in the trench, digesting it to produce compounds that leak via ocean floor fissures.

According to scientists, the mollusks and tubeworms might live beside them and eat the byproducts of their labor, or they might eat those little animals to survive.

“These findings challenge current models of life at extreme limits and carbon cycling in the deep ocean,” the study’s authors wrote. The researchers said that trench-dwelling life forms “may be more widespread than previously anticipated.”

According to a statement from the study’s authors, Mengran Du of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Vladimir Mordukhovich of the Russian Academy of Sciences, future research will concentrate on how these deep-sea animals have adapted to live in such harsh environments and how precisely they use chemical reactions for sustenance.

Their existence challenges “long-standing assumptions about life’s potential at extreme depths,” the authors said.

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