Life on the sea floor
The ocean floor is home to a stunning array of marine life. Deep-water sponges and corals of remarkable variety cling to rocky precipices on mid-ocean ridges and subsea canyons; metre-long worms and myriads of crustaceans throng around hydrothermal vents; mussels abound around hydrocarbon seeps, and sea stars and sea cucumbers roam the vast plains of mud, while a cup-full of deep-sea sediment contains a bewildering array of microscopic forms - most new to science and waiting to be named.
Yet, life is under pressure in the depths of the oceans from man’s unstoppable quest for new resources. Deep-sea life is particularly susceptible to man’s intrusions because of its slower pace of life and its characteristics that mean individuals do not recover quickly from impacts. Apart from marine life that uses bacterial growth from chemical energy, such as at hydrothermal vents and methane seeps, the vast majority of animals are dependent on food originally made in the sunlit surface waters. This means that climate variations that influence the production of phytoplankton in surface waters also have profound effects on life in the abyss. The ocean floor contains a huge diversity of marine life. The race is on to learn about it before it is lost through man’s activities in the marine environment.
Benthos
Life at the bottom of the sea is generally termed the benthos. The word benthos comes from the Greek word for ‘depths of the sea’ (βένθος). About 71% of the planet is covered by ocean and the benthos is highly diverse in both habitat structure and the fantastic array of life forms. These include invertebrates (like shrimps and sea urchins), vertebrate animals (like fishes), protozoans (single-celled animals), and prokaryotes (like bacteria and archea). In coastal waters and estuaries the seafloor is often overgrown with different algae, such as kelp, and even flowering plants that form beautiful underwater meadows.
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SERPENT
The oceans of the world are a vast, alien landscape, covering more than half the Earth's surface. It is the last great frontier on our planet and the SERPENT project is exploring this exciting undersea environment in a unique and innovative deep-sea adventure.
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