There are microbes living 2.5km below the ocean floor, for example, in coal-bearing sediments. These trench-dwellers are not the deepest lifeforms on our planet, however, as a “subsurface biosphere” of microbes permeates even further into the Earth’s crust. Weird and wonderful creatures at the bottom of the ocean. And there is life swimming or drifting throughout that vast volume, even to the bottom of the deepest trenches nearly 11km beneath the waves. The average depth of the ocean is 3,682 metres, so taking 71% of the Earth’s surface with that average depth gives us an estimated volume of 1,332 million km³ for the oceans. But what about lifeforms that aren’t confined to dry ground or the seabed, those that can swim, fly, drift in wind or currents, or even thrive below the planet’s surface?
The oceans cover 71% of the surface of the Earth, so seafloor provides the largest area for those species that move about on or are rooted to our planet’s surface – a reasonable justification for the “largest habitat on Earth”. And lines like that in the prequel can certainly be a head-scratcher for academics like us who fact-check these programmes. Over the past two years I’ve been a scientific adviser on some of the topics covered in a couple of episodes, while colleagues at the Open University have been academic partners for the whole series. OceanX has been conducting research in the Red Sea since February this year, carrying out habitat characterisations, biodiversity inventory and extensive mapping.“The ocean: the largest habitat on Earth” – those words, spoken by Sir David Attenborough at the start of the “prequel” to Blue Planet II, capture the scope, focus, and justification for the BBC Natural History Unit’s latest landmark series. “And it just goes to show, if you’re at the bottom of the sea and you’ve got 15 minutes left, push on.you never know what’s around the corner.” “We were close to giving up,” Purkis says in a voiceover. Our discovery of a rich community of microbes that survive in extreme environments can help trace the limits of life on Earth and can be applied to the search for life elsewhere in our solar system and beyond.”Ī video documenting the discovery shows Purkis and his team marvelling at the sight of the large pool - and how close they came to missing it. Purkis added: “Until we understand the limits of life on Earth, it will be difficult to determine if alien planets can host any living beings.
“The discovery came in the last five minutes of the 10-hour ROV dive that we could dedicate to this project.”ĭespite their extreme salinity and complete lack of oxygen, brine pools teem with “extremophile microbes.(that) can yield bioactive molecules with therapeutic potential, including antibacterial and anticancer properties”, the paper said. “We were very lucky,” said Sam Purkis, professor and chair of the UM Department of Marine Geosciences. The brine pools - one large pool about 10,000 square metres in area and three small pools of less than 10 square metres - lie 1770 metres below the sea surface and were the first to be spotted in the Gulf of Aqaba. OceanXplorer carries a pair of Triton submersible vehicles depth-rated to 1000 metres and the Argus ROV, which can operate in depths up to 6000 metres. The UM team is part of an expedition by OceanX, which has been conducting scientific work in the Red Sea using the OceanXplorer marine research vessel. The Gulf of Mexico, Mediterranean Sea and Red Sea are the only bodies of water known to host brine pools, which can range in size from several square metres to a few square kilometres. Researchers from the University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science, using an Argus Mariner XL remotely operated vehicle, recently discovered rare deep-sea brine pools in the Gulf of Aqaba, a northern extension to the Red Sea.ĭeep-sea brine pools are accumulations of very salty water, “underwater lakes” that form in seabed depressions to create “one of the most extreme habitable environments on Earth, perhaps offering clues to first life on our planet, and guiding the search for life beyond it”, according to a scientific paper on the find published in the journal Nature Communications.
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