Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Even the deep teems with life

Ocean depths that lack oxygen have been found to be full of other kinds of life forms. Some may contain the oldest DNA an the planet. It should also change our view of what we put into the deep ocean.
"Samples taken from the deep seabed have revealed an astonishing variety of life. 'Far from being a lifeless desert, the deep sea rivals such highly diverse ecosystems as tropical rainforests and coral reefs,' said Pedro Marinez Arbizu, one of the scientists working on the Census.
'Given these new insights, we cannot possibly use the deep-sea floor as a waste dump or subject it to unlimited resource extraction without massively impacting the marine communities living there,' Dr Arbizu added."

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