A new study led by the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton has gone some way towards solving one of the biggest questions in marine ecology: how does life exist in a blue desert – the largest habitat on Earth.
The earliest ocean measurements from 135 years ago used alongside the most up-to-date technology, confirm that ocean temperatures, particularly in the Atlantic, have increased since Victorian times.
Bottom trawling fishing boats have devastated many cold water coral reefs along the margin of the North East Atlantic Ocean. Now, researchers have found large cold water coral colonies clinging to the vertical and overhanging sides of submarine canyons 1350 metres below the surface of the Bay of Biscay.
