Foreign media: A research team led by the Chinese Academy of Sciences used a manned submersible to explore the trenches in the northwest Pacific, reaching depths over 31,000 feet, and captured unprecedented deep-sea ecological footage, including beds of bivalves, bacterial ice-like mats, and tube worm communities.
The study was published in the journal "Nature," setting a new record for the depth at which marine vertebrates were filmed (previously set at 27,350 feet in Japanese waters in 2023 with a snailfish). These deep zones receive no sunlight, and their ecosystems rely on chemosynthesis rather than photosynthesis.
The team found that the rich fluids of methane and hydrogen sulfide in the Sakhalin-Kamchatka Trench and the Western Aleutian Trench support these ecosystems, with methane produced by microorganisms breaking down organic matter on the seafloor. Given that other trenches have similar geological conditions, scientists speculate that such chemosynthetic ecosystems may be widespread. Future research will focus on how these organisms convert chemicals into energy and the mechanisms they use to adapt to extreme high-pressure environments.
Original: www.toutiao.com/article/1840233061770244/
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