Living at depths approaching a total of a mile, deep-sea Arctic sponges are a scientific curiosity, as they have somehow made this real environment their home. New evidence gathered over an entire year brings biologists one step closer to understanding these ecologically important sponges and how they can surviving in such harsh conditions.
Spongy land contributes greatly to the deep sea ecosystems, and are often compared to tropical reefs in this respect. But we have little information about their environment and the conditions that make life possible, both for deep-sea sponges and the animal community that lives among them. Living more than 4,900 feet (1,500 meters) below the surface, and in waters below the freezing point, these organisms do not have access to sunlight, and the available food is very scarce. Despite this, sponge land is a true oasis for invertebrates and other fish.
“The deep sea is, in most places, bare and flat,” said Furu Mienis, a marine geologist with the Royal Dutch Institute for Marine Research. recitation. “And then, all of a sudden, our sponge gardens that are colorful, thriving communities.” She told him: “It’s interesting how this system keeps itself in a place like that.”
Mienis is the co-author of the new JGR Oceans study details a year-long study of sponge land located at Schulz Bank on the Atlantic ridge.
“This marine situation and the hydrodynamic conditions seem to create a beneficial system for the sponges,” she said.
G / O Media may receive a commission
Mienis’s the team used a surface at the bottom – a large mast with a series of sensors – at the top of an Arctic mountain located in the Norwegian sea. Effective from July 21, 2016, to July 27, 2017, the landfill at the base collected data such as temperature and water oxygen levels, stream flow, and even the amount of food falling from the surface. A special camera attached to the mast was able to capture over 700 hours of images, offering a long time view of physical changes at the deep sponge land of the sea.
Data collected at the top of Schulz Bank showed that water flowing around the sponge ground interacts with the seamure itself, “which produces a turbulent mix with normal high-speed distances. , ”As the authors write in the study. In addition, water that moves around the seam delivers “food and nutrients from upper and lower layers of water toward the sponge ground,” according to the new paper. The team recorded “high” streams clicking in at 2.3 feet per second (0.7 meters per second), which for seabed is a direct superstition (watch the video below to the streams ” high speed ”).
Only one program during the year provided food from above; that is, summer phytoplankton flowering time. The authors stated that this may not provide enough food for the enforcers below, and they suspect that other food sources are in the form of bacteria and diffuse material.
Deep sea sponges along the Schultz B.the ankle was seen to thrive at temperatures below freezing, which the authors described as “true.” The scientists say that this frigid temperature could keep these creatures alive, reducing their metabolic rate so that they can survive through the gloomy, resource-reduced problems environment. Interestingly, the high speed streams seem to test the boundaries of sponges.
“The distances we have observed may be close to the maximum they can sustain,” Ulrike Hanz, the first author of the new study, explained in a NIOZ statement. “At our highest speeds we saw sponges as well as anemones ripped from the seabed.”
In terms of physical changes to the site, the scientists saw almost nothing new throughout the year. A year had passed and “everything looked almost the same,” said Hanz, as it is “just so cold out there that things aren’t going smoothly.”
Despite this serenity, the authors warn that deep sea sponge land must be protected from human activity, citing fishing and the potential for deep sea. mining as potential hazards. It is hard to imagine that these animals can survive in such a harsh environment at the bottom of the Arctic, but not in the deceptive hands of humanity.