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11 Dec 06 Life Thrives at Searing Sea Vent under Ice - Report Story by Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent National Geographic 11 Dec 06 Extreme New Species Discovered by Sea-Life Survey James Owen Yahoo News 10 Dec 06 Scientists marvel at sea life miles deep By Randolph E. Schmid WASHINGTON - Peering deep into the sea, scientists are finding creatures more mysterious than many could have imagined. At one site, nearly 2 miles deep in the Atlantic, shrimp were living around a vent that was releasing water heated to 765 degrees Fahrenheit. Water surrounding the site was a chilly 36 degrees. An underwater peak in the Coral Sea was home to a type of shrimp thought to have gone extinct 50 million years ago. More than 3 miles beneath the Sargasso Sea, in the Atlantic, researchers collected a dozen new species eating each other or living on organic material that drifts down from above. "Animals seem to have found a way to make a living just about everywhere," said Jesse Ausubel of the Sloan Foundation, discussing the findings of year six of the census of marine life. Added Ron O'Dor, a senior scientist with the census: "We can't find anyplace where we can't find anything new." This year's update, released Sunday, is part of a study of life in the oceans that is scheduled for final publication in 2010. The census is an international effort supported by governments, divisions of the United Nations and private conservation organizations. About 2,000 researchers from 80 countries are participating. Ausubel said there are nearly 16,000 known species of marine fish and 70,000 kinds of marine mammals. A couple of thousand have been discovered during the census. The researchers conducted 19 ocean expeditions this year; a 20th continues in the Antarctic. In addition, they operated 128 nearshore sampling sites and, using satellites, followed more than 20 tagged species including sharks, squid, sea lions and albatross. Highlights of the 2006 research included: _Shrimp, clams and mussels living near the super-hot thermal vent in the Atlantic, where they face pulses of water that is near-boiling despite shooting into the frigid sea. _In the sea surrounding the Antarctic, a community of marine life shrouded in darkness beneath more than 1,600 feet of ice. Sampling of this remote ocean yielded more new species than familiar ones. _Off the coast of New Jersey, 20 million fish swarming in a school the size of Manhattan. _Finding alive and well, in the Coral Sea, the type of shrimp called Neoglyphea neocaledonica, thought to have disappeared millions of years ago. Researchers nicknamed it the Jurassic shrimp. _Satellite tracking of tagged sooty shearwaters, small birds, that mapped the birds' 43,500-mile search for food in a giant figure eight over the Pacific Ocean, from New Zealand via Polynesia to foraging grounds in Japan, Alaska and California and then back. The birds averaged a surprising 217 miles daily. In some cases, a breeding pair made the entire journey together. _A new find, a 4-pound rock lobster discovered off Madagascar. _A single-cell creature big enough to see, in the Nazare Canyon off Portugal. The fragile new species was found 14,000 feet deep. It is enclosed within a plate-like shell, four-tenths of an inch in diameter, composed of mineral grains. _A new type of crab with a furry appearance, near Easter Island. It was so unusual it warranted a whole new family designation, Kiwaidae, named for Kiwa, the Polynesian goddess of shellfish. Its furry appearance justified its species name, hirsuta, meaning hairy. Associated Press writer John Heilprin contributed to this report. PlanetArk 11 Dec 06 Life Thrives at Searing Sea Vent under Ice - Report Story by Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent NORWAY: December 11, 2006 OSLO - Marine creatures are thriving by a record hot volcanic vent in the Atlantic and in dark waters under thick Antarctic ice, boosting theories that planets other than Earth are suitable for life, scientists said on Sunday. About 150 new types of fish were among 500 new marine species, including furry crabs and a lobster off Madagascar, found in the seas in 2006, according to researchers in the 70-nation Census of Marine Life. Many species were found in places long thought too hostile for life -- including by a vent spewing liquids at 407 Celsius (764.6F) and other habitats that were dark, cold or deep. Some places seemed as inhospitable as planets such as Mars or Venus. "The age of discovery is not over," said Jesse Ausubel, a program manager at the US Sloan Foundation which is a sponsor of the 10-year Census. Finds "are provocative for NASA and for people who are interested in life in places other than Earth." Among discoveries in 2006 were shrimps, clams and bacteria living by the searing 407C vent on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean north of Ascension Island, the hottest sea vent ever documented and more than hot enough to melt lead. "This is the most extreme environment and there is plenty of life around it," said Chris German, of Britain's Southampton Oceanography Centre and a leader of the Atlantic survey. He said one big puzzle was how creatures coped with shifts in temperatures -- water on the seabed at 3,000 metres (9,842 ft) was just 2C yet many creatures withstood near-boiling temperatures of up to 80C from the thermal vent. LIVING IN SAUNA German said it was a bit like a person agreeing to live in a blistering sauna and be hosed at random with freezing water. Scientists had not yet probed how hardy the microbes nearest the hottest part of the vent were -- a type of bacteria called "Strain 121" found in the Pacific in 2003 holds the record by being able to withstand temperatures of 121 Celsius. And another expedition found crustaceans, jellyfish and single-celled animals living in darkness in the Weddell Sea off Antarctica under ice 700 metres thick and 200 km (125 miles) from open water. Most of those creatures were new to science. "You can think of it as a cave, one of the remotest caves on earth," Ausubel said of findings by a robot camera. "Wherever we've gone on earth we've continued to find life," German said. He said recent discoveries could be encouraging for the search for life elsewhere in the universe. Some experts speculate that Jupiter's moon Europa could hide an ocean beneath its frozen surface and Ausubel noted life has been found on Earth beside subsea methane seeps -- Saturn's moon Titan also has methane. And NASA said last week it had found signs of liquid water on Mars. Among other 2006 finds by the census, due for completion in 2010, was a "Jurassic shrimp" in the Coral Sea east of Australia and previously thought extinct 50 million years ago. The biggest new species was probably a 1.8 kg (4 lb) rock lobster found off Madagascar. And a furry crab, also dubbed a "Yeti crab", was found off Easter Island. In the longest migration ever documented, census researchers tracked sooty shearwater birds on a 70 ,000 km flight sweeping round the Pacific in 200 days, an average 350 km a day. National Geographic 11 Dec 06 Extreme New Species Discovered by Sea-Life Survey James Owen for National Geographic News A host of weird and wonderful discoveries from across the seven seas has been discovered this year, according to a global census of ocean life. Heat-resistant volcanic shrimps, bacteria-farming furry crabs, and a giant species of lobster are among the finds made by marine scientists probing some of the world's deepest and remotest seas. The discoveries add to the Census of Marine Life, a project that seeks to record all known ocean life, living and extinct, by 2010. The census, now in its sixth year, involves a network of more than 1,700 researchers in at least 70 countries. One team involved in the census reported the discovery of marine animals thriving in the hottest ocean waters ever recorded. Heat-resistant species of mussels and shrimps were found living alongside volcanic fissures where temperatures reached 765 degrees Fahrenheit (407 degrees Celsius). Submersible robots detected the sea creatures 1.8 miles (3 kilometers) beneath the surface of the South Atlantic, some 300 miles (550 kilometers) south of the Equator. "These animals are living in environments in which temperatures can flicker instantly over a range of about 80 degrees Celsius [176 degrees Fahrenheit]," said survey team member Chris German of the Southampton Oceanography Centre in England. "They are living as close to the vents as they dare get without getting themselves boiled alive," he added. "Some of the mussel beds have been buried in lava," German said. "Such are the hazards of living on top of a volcano—it really is a life in the extremes." Biggest, "Hairiest" New Species Of the many new organisms recorded, the largest may be a giant rock lobster from waters off the island of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. Caught on a submerged chain of underwater mountains, the newly named Palinurus barbarae lobster weighs up to 9 pounds (4 kilograms). Some of the collected specimens were 50 years old. A less appetizing-looking crustacean with furry arms was discovered in the Pacific Ocean during a deep-sea dive expedition led by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California. Located near hydrothermal vents on the sea floor at depths of 7,540 feet (2,300 meters), the blind, white, part-crab-part-lobster was deemed so unusual that a new taxonomic family was created for it. Kiwa hirsute, also dubbed the "yeti crab," has long hairs covering its pincers and arms that support colonies of yellow bacteria. Researchers speculate that the creature may cultivate these bacteria for food or to combat the harmful effects of a soup of toxic metals spewed up from the vents. "Deepest" Discovery of the Year The deepest census survey took place more than three miles (five kilometers) down in the Sargasso Sea in the North Atlantic, where researchers trawled up a rare and diverse array of tiny animals known as zooplankton. More than 500 species were collected, including 12 likely new species. Another census team reported an unusually large microscopic organism found at depths of 14,100 feet (4,300 meters) in seas off Portugal. The single-celled "macro microbe" is 1 centimeter (0.4 inch) in diameter and equipped with a platelike shell designed to withstand pressures more than 400 times those at the surface. Other reported discoveries include a prehistoric crustacean nicknamed the "Jurassic shrimp" from the Coral Sea off Australia that was thought to have gone extinct around 50 million years ago. Meanwhile off the coast of New Jersey, a census ship equipped with latest sound-based survey technology detected a 20-million-strong school of fish that covered an area the size of Manhattan Island. Future of Ocean Exploration Technological advances are accelerating the rate at which new species are being discovered, according to Fred Grassle of Rutgers University in New Jersey, who chairs the Census of Marine Life steering committee. "Each census expedition reveals new marvels of the ocean, and with the return of each vessel it is increasingly clear that many more discoveries await marine explorers for years to come," Grassle said. Survey techniques being developed and tested over the ten-year census period may also help in the search for life on other planets, said German, of the Southampton Oceanography Centre. The researcher says deep-sea robots his team deployed to locate hydrothermal vents are being looked at by NASA for potential use in extraterrestrial oceans. The robots were programmed to follow chemical clues in the water to track down areas of volcanic activity on the seabed, German said. Scientists speculate that similar hydrothermal habitats may exist elsewhere, such as on Europa, one of the moons of Jupiter, which is thought to harbor a deep ocean beneath its frozen exterior. Studies suggest Europa also has volcanic activity that would likely impact its ocean floor. If that's the case, German said, "then there's plenty of chemical energy and a source of energy for food, so why couldn't you have an ecosystem based around that?" NASA is planning further tests of the robots under ice in the Arctic next summer. "It's the perfect natural laboratory for them," German added. links Census of Marine Life website Related articles on Wild shores |
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