An international research team has discovered single-celled microorganisms where they didn’t expect
Researchers have found organisms living in sediments 1,180 metres below the seabed at 120 degrees Celsius – way past the boiling point of water at the surface.
Sediments that lie deep below the ocean floor are harsh habitats. Temperature and pressure steadily increase with depth, while the energy supply becomes increasingly scarce. In spite of these conditions, microbial diversity below the seafloor is as rich as on Earth’s surface.
Expedition 370 of the International Ocean Discovery Program drilled 1.2km into the Nankai Trough off the coast of Japan to find the extraordinary organisms. Marine sediments represent a massive microbial ecosystem, but we still do not fully understand what factors shape and limit life underneath the seafloor.
With the deep biosphere so little understood, it brings up fundamental questions: Where are the limits of life – and so what might we find in outer space?