The depths of the oceans have been a source of curiosity for people for centuries, at least as much as the depths of space. When we consider that there are still many unexplored points in the oceans of the world that are still undiscovered, and that there are many unknown species living there, any research on the oceans is of course interesting.
Researchers who want to shed some light on this mystery about the oceans that have been going on since the existence of humanity, examined the ocean floor in hundreds of different parts of the world. As a result of this research, the research team achieved results that reveal the astonishing diversity of microscopic life that thrives in the deepest and darkest parts of our planet.
The depths of the ocean have three times the diversity of life than the surface of the ocean
Deep ocean sediment, which covers more than half of our planet’s surface, is difficult to access, meaning we have almost no idea what’s going on in the ocean depths where this sediment is found. Although we have discovered a very small part of the deep sea in recent years thanks to remotely controlled vehicles, even this small part discovered was enough to show us that there is a world deep inside that we have never known.
Within the scope of the new research, sediment samples collected from different parts of the world were analyzed for environmental DNA (eDNA) that sea creatures shed on the seafloor as they continue their lives. Examining this eDNA shed by sea creatures, researchers also found traces of microbes and other small creatures that make up the ecosystem under the sea floor.
Comparing the results obtained here with other existing DNA data of plankton collected from the upper layers of the ocean, the researchers are confident that the new data belong only to living things in the deep; As a result, they discovered that most eukaryotic organisms living on the ocean floor are unknown to modern science. In fact, it seems that the bottom of the ocean is home to at least three times the diversity of microbial life than in the upper waters.
“We compared our deep-sea benthic DNA sequences with all available reference sequences for known eukaryotes,” notes geneticist Jan Pawlowski of the University of Geneva in Switzerland, who is one of the research team that has brought together such a globally consistent molecular dataset of the ocean world for the first time. Stating that the data obtained show that approximately two-thirds of benthic diversity cannot be assigned to any known group, Pawlowski states that this means that there is a big gap in our knowledge of marine biodiversity.
The data obtained show that there are also larger unknown creatures on the sea floor.
The diversity of plankton found, although current analysis mostly focused on smaller sized organisms such as diatoms and dinoflagellates and small animals such as earthworms and small mollusks; provides some further evidence that the deep sea is also home to larger animals.
“These deep-ocean sedimentary communities include not only taxa that are known to be important drivers of the biological carbon pump, but also diverse taxonomic and functional groups from arguably the most fundamental ecological processes of the world’s ocean,” the study authors noted. He underlines that Turkey is one of the richest modern ecosystems and fossil archives.
Given that commercial deep-sea mining is on the rise and how many lives are at stake, despite marine scientists’ warnings that we need comprehensive ecological risk assessments first, researchers call for further exploration of the seafloor to better understand and protect these deep-sea ecosystems. .
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