While it’s true that we’ve only explored about five percent of the world’s waters, we probably imagine that that’s only available for the world’s oceans. I mean, rivers and lakes aren’t all that big, except maybe for a few lochs here or there. Otherwise, why would we skip on exploring parts of our planet, seeing as we’re so keen on discovery?
Well, certain places are just too out of the way or too dangerous to access, while others are in fact so common-looking that nobody would think there’s something worth exploring there. Other times, places are just overlooked. All that being said, a huge reef ecosystem was found in the Amazon according to a study published in the journal Science Advances.
Located between the Maranhão State in Brazil and the French Guiana-Brazil border, the reef lies in a plume of river water right at the mouth of the Amazon. According to the published study, this is what explains how it managed to remain undiscovered for so long despite speculations of its presence being around for over six decades.
Senior author Fabiano Thompson, oceanographer and marine biology professor at the SAGE-COPPE of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and lead author Rodrigo Moura are the ones that led the expedition in the form of three cruises as part of a United States – Brazil collaboration.
Expectedly, seeing as this is one of the rarest types of reefs ever encountered, its characteristics are fairly different from any other known before. Aside from the many areas of very low light and oxygen that are usually common thousands of feet under the surface, another very unusual feature of the reef is that it resides in murky, sediment-rich waters. In fact, the Amazon sheds some 333,000 nutrients per second in that particular location.
But the biome is also very strange, with the experts on the case considering it an absolute novelty. Aside from the many single-celled organisms that play a vital role in the ecosystem, the fauna mostly consists of enormous sponges, wide varieties of algae and corals, spiny lobsters, hydroids, and some 73 species of fish.
Even though it was just discovered, the reef is already struggling with survival. Even though it is in far better shape than the Great Barrier Reef, as the murky Amazon waters kept it safe from most of the effects of global warming, there are other factors that are contributing to this reef’s demise.
First of all, 125 portions of the river substrate were purchased by a petroleum company in 2013, and they will soon be sending enough oil the reef’s way to make it dangerous. But as it happens, this Amazonian reef is also one of its own biggest enemies, as it sacrificed resistance for quick reproduction.
Image source: Discovery