From the Edge of Darkness
to the Black Abyss: Marine Scientists
Census 17,500+ Species and Counting
Census of Marine Life scientists have inventoried an astonishing abundance, diversity and distribution of deep sea species that have never known sunlight – creatures that somehow manage a living in a frigid black world down to 5,000 meters (~3 miles) below the ocean waves.
Revealed via deep-towed cameras, sonar and other vanguard technologies, animals known to thrive in an eternal watery darkness now number 17,650, a diverse collection of species ranging from crabs to shrimp to worms. Most have adapted to diets based on meager droppings from the sunlit layer above, others to diets of bacteria that break down oil, sulfur and methane, the sunken bones of dead whales and other implausible foods.
Five of the Census’ 14 field projects plumb the ocean beyond light, each dedicated to the study of life in progressively deeper realms – from the continental margins (COMARGE: Continental Margins Ecosystems) to the spine-like ridge running down the mid-Atlantic (MAR-ECO: Mid-Atlantic Ridge Ecosystem Project), the submerged mountains rising from the seafloor (CenSeam: Global Census of Marine Life on Seamounts), the muddy floor of ocean plains (CeDAMar: Census of Diversity of Abyssal Marine Life), and the vents, seeps, whale falls and chemically-driven ecosystems found on the margins of mid-ocean ridges and in the deepest ocean trenches (ChEss:Biogeography of Deep-Water Chemosynthetic Systems).
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Full press release [1] (PDF)
Media:
Image Gallery [2]
Video Gallery [3]
Researchers in North and South startled to find Polar oceans share 235 species;
Changes in species distribution documented as warmer oceans spur migration;
United by high-speed current, Antarctic benthos revealed as single bioregion;
Smaller species replacing larger ones in some Arctic waters
Polar Year results are milestones towards historic 1st global oceans Census: Oct. 2010
Earth’s unique, forbidding ice oceans of the Arctic and Antarctic have revealed a trove of secrets to Census of Marine Life explorers, who were especially surprised to find at least 235 species live in both polar seas despite an 11,000-kilometer distance in between.
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Additional Information:
Links:
[1] http://www.coml.org/comlfiles/press/CoML_Beyond_Sunlight_11.17.2009_Public.pdf
[2] http://www.coml.org/pressreleases/beyondsunlight09/index.html
[3] http://www.coml.org/pressreleases/deepsea09/video
[4] http://www.coml.org/comlfiles/press/CoML_Oceans_Past_Public_Release_05.23.pdf
[5] http://www.coml.org/pressreleases/oceanspast09/index.html
[6] http://www.coml.org/pressreleases/oceanspast09/video/
[7] http://comlmaps.org/gallery/historical_conference
[8] http://www.coml.org/comlfiles/press/CoML_Ice_Oceans_Public_Release_02.15.2009.pdf
[9] http://www.coml.org/pressreleases/ipy09/index.html
[10] http://www.coml.org/press-releases-2009/ipyclusterprojects
[11] http://www.coml.org/press-releases-2009/polarawards
[12] http://www.coml.org/press-releases-2009/polargoogle
[13] http://www.coml.org/video/index3.html