Source: Huffington Post
Author: Chris D’Angelo
THE BOTTOM OF THE ATLANTIC OCEAN — Forty miles off the coast of North Carolina, the 274-foot research vessel Atlantis paced a dark, empty swath of ocean in evenly spaced lines as the crew pinged sound waves into the deep. A quarter-mile below, plumes of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, rose from the seafloor.
Continue reading Chasing The Methane Dragon That Lurks In The Deep Sea
Source: Frontiers in Marine Science
Although initially viewed as oases within a barren deep ocean, hydrothermal vents and methane seep chemosynthetic communities are now recognized to interact with surrounding ecosystems on the sea floor and in the water column, and to affect global geochemical cycles. The importance of understanding these interactions is growing as the potential rises for disturbance of the systems from oil and gas extraction, seabed mining and bottom trawling.
Continue reading Hydrothermal Vents and Methane Seeps: Rethinking the Sphere of Influence
Source: Nature
Carbonate rocks near methane seeps in the sea floor are home to thriving ecosystems of microbes that consume that greenhouse gas, suggests research published in Nature Communications1.
Continue reading Sea floors host surprise methane-munching microbes
