Bizarre ecosystem discovered more than three kilometers under the Arctic Ocean

Bizarre ecosystem discovered more than three kilometers under the Arctic Ocean

By Claire Cameron Edited by Jeanna Bryner

At the bottom of the Arctic Ocean, life gets weird. One might assume that at its greatest depths, the icy, dark water would be too inhospitable, but a new discovery reminds us that this is far from the case.

Off the coast of Greenland, the deep seabed is littered with towering mounds of crystallized methane and other gases. Known as Freya’s hydrate mounds, these structures act as a “frozen reef,” a refuge for creatures that have evolved to live in unique environments on Earth.

In a new article published in Natural communicationsscientists document the deepest of these mounds ever discovered, at 3,640 meters, or about 2.26 miles, below the surface. The discovery was made as part of the Ocean Census Arctic Deep-EXTREME24 expedition aimed at exploring and studying the Arctic environment and documenting ocean life using tools such as underwater robots.

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Incredibly, the mounds, also known as cold gas hydrate seeps, release flares of methane about 3,300 meters high into the water – the highest eruptions of their type ever recorded. Over time, the mounds collapse and reform, a dynamic process that researchers say provides insight into the Arctic’s different ecosystems.

“These are not static deposits,” Giuliana Panieri, study co-author and professor at the Arctic University of Norway, said in a statement about the new research. “They are living geological features, responding to tectonics, deep heat flows and environmental changes. »

Gathered on the mounds are chemosynthetic creatures – life that has evolved to no longer rely on sun-powered photosynthesis for food, but rather on chemical reactions. Some of the creatures seen on Freya’s mounds are also found in hydrothermal vents, or fissures in the seafloor through which hot, chemical-laden water erupts, the researchers said, suggesting that these ecosystems may be more closely linked than previously thought.

“The connections we found between life in this seep and Arctic hydrothermal vents indicate that these island habitats on the ocean floor will need to be protected from any future impacts of deep-sea mining in the region,” Jon Copley, study co-author and professor at the University of Southampton in England, said in the same release.

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