Bacteria Mass The Size Of Greece Found Under Sea Near Chile
Filed under: Census of Marine Life,Discovery,News & Resources
(Click to enlarge image) Flower-like: The acantharians are one of the four types of large amoebae that occur in marine open waters. Their fragile skeletons are made of a single crystal of strontium sulfate that quickly dissolves in the ocean water after the cell dies.
Scientific findings discover unknown microbes, tiny zooplankton, crustaceans, worms, burrowers and larvae on the ocean floor
(From ABCNews, Times UK / By Laura Burgoine) – A recent survey as part of a 10-year census of marine life has uncovered giant multi-cellular bacteria carpets on the seabed. Resembling thin strands of spaghetti and feeding on hydrogen sulphide in oxygen-starved waters off Peru and Chile, the strands thrive by absorbing methane from the seabed.
The bacteria have been measured up to a kilo (2.2 pounds) per square meter.
“Fishermen sometimes can’t lift nets from the bottom because they have more bacteria than shrimp,” Victor Gallardo, vice chair of the Census Scientific Steering Committee, said.
During some 300 voyages, scientists of the 10-year census have been sampling plankton, microbes and sediment-dwellers, but these new discoveries, including the bacteria mass the size of Greece on the seabed near Chile, have pushed research forward.
Ann Bucklin, head of the University of Connecticut’s Marine Sciences Department, who led the team investigating zooplankton, said there were many more species than they thought.
“These things may be tiny individually, but altogether they are a huge fraction of the biomass of ocean life. Not only are they beautiful, but they’re very important ecologically,” she said.
With one study finding 700 new species of crustaceans in an area the size of a small bathroom, the research has uncovered an abundance of new life forms on the seabed.
“If you take a bottom photograph it looks like there’s not much there, but if you actually collect the sediment and bring it up you find it’s crawling with all sorts of things,” said scientist Paul Snelgrove.
