deep sea

Shopping Bags in the Abyss: Addressing the Deep-Sea Plastic Crisis

3 October, 2018

Source: Nippon.com
Author: Chiba Sanae

The impact of human activity, namely our heavy reliance on single-use plastic products, has reached even the deepest depths of the ocean. Recently, I helped publish “Human Footprint in the Abyss,” the first-ever paper documenting the extent of plastic pollution in marine environments at depths greater than 6,000 meters. The project involved researchers from the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology and the UN World Conservation Monitoring Centre, and was based in part on findings from JAMSTEC’s Deep-Sea Debris Database. Launched in 2017, the database compiles images and videos taken from 1982 through 2015, during 5,010 dives to depths of more than 100 meters, by deep-sea submersibles and remotely operated vehicles.

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Deep-Sea Mining for Rare-Earth Metals Looms, as Do Environmental Questions

28 September, 2018

Source: Bloomburg BNA
Author: Adam Ellington and Stephan Lee

Once thought too expensive and too difficult, commercial scale mining of the deep sea is poised to become a reality as early as 2019. But scientists warn reaching rare minerals on and under the sea floor could cause irreversible damage to an environment that is still poorly understood.

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Observing the development of a deep-sea greenhouse gas filter

28 September, 2018

Source: Science Daily
Author: Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology

Large quantities of the greenhouse gas methane are stored in the seabed. Fortunately, only a small fraction of the methane reaches the atmosphere, where it acts as a climate-relevant gas, as it is largely degraded within the sediment. This degradation is carried out by a specialized community of microbes, which removes up to 90 percent of the escaping methane. Thus, these microbes are referred to as the “microbial methane filter.” If the greenhouse gas were to rise through the water and into the atmosphere, it could have a significant impact on our climate.

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Scientists discovered 85 miles of deep-sea coral reef hidden off the US East Coast — here’s what it looks like

22 September, 2018

Source: Business Insider
Author: Jeremy Berke

The seafloor is one of the last unexplored regions of our watery planet.

On a recent expedition dubbed Deep Search 2018, a group of ocean researchers discovered 85 miles of deep-sea coral reef off the coast of the southeastern US.

“Good news is too rare these days, and this is a victory that we can all share. We have found a pristine coral reef in our own backyard,” Erik Cordes, the chief scientist on the expedition and a deep-sea ecologist at Temple University, wrote in a mission summary.

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Discovery of vibrant deep-sea life prompts new worries over seabed mining

21 September, 2018

Source: Nature
Author: Amy Maxmen

“Gummy squirrels,” single-celled organisms the size of softballs and strange worms thrive in a Pacific Ocean zone some considered an underwater desert.

Deep in the eastern central Pacific Ocean, on a stretch of sea floor nearly as big as the continental United States, researchers are discovering species faster than they can name them. And they are exploring newfound fossil beds of whales that lived up to 16 million years ago.

The findings — many reported for the first time last week at the Deep-Sea Biology Symposium in Monterey, California — have come as a shock. Some scientists had thought these vast underwater plains, 4,000–5,500 metres below the ocean surface, were relatively lifeless. But that is changing just as nations and corporations prepare to mine this patch of the Pacific sea bed for cobalt, manganese and other elements for use in technologies such as smartphones and electric cars.

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Return to the Lost City 2018

18 September, 2018
Source: lostcity.biology.utah.edu

A deep-sea expedition to the Lost City hydrothermal field begins in September 2018. The Lost City is a beautiful seafloor formation whose unique scientific and cultural value has brought it under consideration for special protection by the UNESCO World Heritage Centre and International Union for Conservation of Nature. The Lost City is also featured in many studies on the origin of life and the search for life in the solar system. This will be the first US expedition dedicated to the Lost City since the 2003-2005 expeditions.

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