Cold seeps reveal extraordinary deep sea life
24 November 2006
by Carina Lee
Black smokers rich in sulfidic compounds have been known for quite sometime. However for the first time ever, colonies of deep-sea communities have been observed off the New Zealand east coast, crowding around methane gas seeps or cracks. Leader of this research group, Dr Amy Baco-Taylor, and her colleagues analysed different environments in New Zealand. Baco-Taylor explains “This is the first time cold seeps have been viewed and sampled in the southwest Pacific, and will greatly contribute to our knowledge of these intriguing ecosystems.” Indeed, these cold-seep ecosystems are intriguing and can provide a lot of information about the biological diversity of marine species including knowledge about their habit or possible symbiotic relationships with other organisms. Not only were organisms that are dependent on these methane plumes studied, but the area in which they were found to occur was mapped using sonar techniques, a tool employed to survey sea-floor topography. This discovery has an important impact on environmental geoscience studies to better understand marine diversity with biological, geological, and chemical significances.
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examples of some unusual life forms around these seeps. Deep-sea tube worms found around a methane seep off New Zealand’s east coast during Tangaroa’s voyage. image: NIWA Science Communication (New Zealand, National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research)
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Original press release from EurekAlert
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