Deep-Sea Life and Habitats

The regulation of excess heat and CO2 can have irreversible short term consequences on Deep Deep Sea Sea organisms. Concurrently with climate change, resource exploitation (minerals, hydrocarbons, fisheries) is spreading to the Deep Sea and brings its share of disruptions in fragile environments. This vital gap in international law should, according to her, be closed as soon as possible. In Russian permafrost regions it is already being attempted to min gas hydrates with conventional methods. The USA and Japan are planning their techniques for first test extractions.

Underwater Robot Discovers Three New Species of Deep Sea Snailfish

The scientifically relevant USPAs would be ideal objects for the extension of international environmental protection to the open ocean. Scientists assume that there are some ten million undiscovered species currently living in the dark depths of the ocean. Every expedition into the aquatic realms of the deep brings new realisations. In 1977 scientists discovered hydrothermal vents, the so-called “black smokers” at the ocean ridges. These vents release minerals, mostly black sulphur compounds, which settle into chimney-like structures. Fed through the conversion of chemical energy these vents have created ecosystems entirely independent from sunlight as a source of energy, leading to their high biodiversity.

• The formation and growth of manganese nodules is closely linked to the biological cycles in benthic waters and in the boundary layer between the water and the sea floor.
• They use this feature to attract males, but also (and especially) prey species.
• In 1997 the research vessel ‘Sonne’ was the first to sample large amounts of the gas hydrate that bubbled like sherbet and melted away as it was pulled aboard.
• Along with temperature and salinity measurements the crew also specifically caught organisms at different depths, as they now carried nets that they could close at previously decided depths.
• Today, the HAUSGARTEN observatory consists of 21 monitoring stations at depths of between 250 and 5,500 metres beneath the surface.

Dive deeper

The discovery of the deep sea was – similar to the discovery of space and the flight to the moon – fuelled by the cold war and primarily used for military strategies. Nautilus’ successfully crossed beneath the arctic ice-sheets in 1958, including a spectacular surfacing at the North Pole. In the end, however, it was a Swiss engineer who set up the world record. For that purpose, we have crawlers – autonomous tracked vehicles that can be precisely deployed on the seafloor by free fall or in a cable-tethered frame. Once there, they use their tracks to travel to predetermined sites, where they measure e.g. the oxygen content at different sediment depths. In addition to measuring devices, they have a high-resolution onboard camera, used to capture their surroundings.

Deep Sea

The species name of the sleek snailfish, Paraliparis em, recognizes this unique research site and the people and programs that have supported the Station M time series. The fishes belong to the family Liparidae, or snailfishes, which have evolved to be incredibly successful in deep-sea habitats. The family includes the deepest-living species of fishes, which live at high pressures of more than 11,000 pounds per square inch.

Welcome to the Knowledge Hub: A New Home for Understanding the Deep-Sea

• The fishing at the far away deep sea locations is often the only way for fishermen from different waters to make back the money they had to invest in the boats and their equipment.
• However, it is important to acknowledge that for now there is very limited visibility of the destabilization these ecosystems suffer due to disturbances predicted by the greenhouse gas emission scenarios.
• The geographic isolation in the far away deep sea basins, the specialisation of the species and the isolation of the larvae due to the specific currents have turned the sea mounts into oases of fish- and benthic fauna.
• The worldwide reservoir of manganese nodules was estimated to be approximately 10 billion tons.
• The deciding factor for the growth speed of these nodules seems to be the mineral concentration in the water, mostly.
• Because greater than 75% of the deep ocean lies beneath 1000 meters, ocean depths are relatively unexplored and until recently, inaccessible.
• The richest manganese nodule fields are around the North-eastern Pacific along the equator, in the Peruvian basin (South-eastern Pacific) and the Indian Ocean.

The very deepest depth of the ocean is roughly 2,000 meters deeper than Mount Everest is tall—36,070 feet deep (10,994 m)! Each zone has a different mix of species adapted to its specific light level, pressure, temperature, and community. About three-fourths of the area covered by ocean is deep, permanently dark, and cold.

The deep sea fish espada is a fish tourists commonly get served by locals in Madeira, but it is actually called Aphanopus carbo and is being caught in much higher quantities by the British isles these days. Deep sea sharks are, on the one hand, valued for the oil that can be obtained from their liver, but on the other hand are also now replacing the spiny dogfish in the production of ‘Schillerlocke’. And with the ever-growing motors, larger nets, and smaller mesh sizes, the factory ships are fishing thousands of km away from their port of origin. Further, technological developments such as the GPS or improved ocean mapping has brought even the most remote deep sea regions within reach of the fishing nations. Dispersed buoys with km-long fishing lines holding thousands of baited hooks in search of deep sea sharks are being moved through satellite control.

The discovery of worms and a head of medusa (brittle star) at 1.800 m depth in the North Atlantic by the English polar researcher Sir John Ross went by unnoticed. But mining in the delicate ecosystem of the deep sea can do lasting harm. This was demonstrated in the experiment DISCOL (Disturbance and Recolonization), which the AWI and a host of other European research centres contributed to. In 1989, eleven square kilometres of the Pacific seafloor were churned up in an area roughly 650 kilometres southeast of the Galápagos Islands to simulate the mining of manganese nodules.
With threats like climate change and mining putting deep-sea communities at risk, documenting the residents of this environment is more urgent than ever. “The deep sea is home to an incredible diversity of organisms and a truly beautiful array of adaptations. Our discovery of not one, but three, new species of snailfishes is a reminder of how much we have yet to learn about life on Earth and of the power of curiosity and exploration,” said Gerringer.
They also serve as a habitat for deep sea creatures like sea stars and sharks. Unlike shallow-water corals, however, deep-sea corals don’t need sunlight. They obtain the energy and nutrients they need to survive by trapping tiny organisms in their polyps from passing currents.