Marine scientists have identified 17,650 species in ocean depths so far down that light no longer penetrates, the newest update in the years-long census of marine life released yesterday showed.
The oddest of their finds included the jumbo Dumbo, a 2m-long creature that swims by flapping large ear-like fins, like the cartoon elephant. The rare octopod was found at a depth of between 1,000m and 3,000m in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the Census of Marine Life said.
But researchers were also astonished to lift up a worm from 990m beneath the Gulf of Mexico, only to find crude oil streaming from both the animal and the open hole.
“The ‘wildcat’ tubeworm had hit a gusher and was dining on chemicals from decomposing oil,” the scientists said in a press statement.
The ongoing global Census of Marine Life is the first attempt to take stock of the world’s oceans and their species, and has taken researchers into ocean regions rarely studied or visited. The census is to be published by next October in an online encyclopedia with a Web page for every species. Scientist expect that there will still be more than 1 million unknown ocean species at that point.
The report released yesterday documented the 17,650 species found deeper than 200 metres, the depth where darkness stops photosynthesis.
Nearly 6,000 of those species were found deeper than 1,000m, where marine life can be long-lived despite a meager diet and often must rely on “chemosynthetic” production of food instead of photosynthesis. Deep sea life can also survive if it has abundant food in higher layers that settles to the depths or that they can migrate to.
Scientists baited one trap with whalebone and sunk it in the Antarctic, where they found the region’s first recorded whalebone-eating worm, Osedax, thought to only exist in the northeast Atlantic and the northern Pacific.
“To survive in the deep, animals must find and exploit meager or novel resources and their great diversity in the deep reflects how many ways there are to adapt,” said Robert Carney of Louisiana State University, coleader of the group that studied life along the continental margins.
All told, 344 scientists from 34 countries — including Russia, Brazil, South Africa and Uruguay — have been working on this part of the project, the deep-sea census.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese