Everything grows on sunlight? Deep-sea creatures: Guess how I survived

As the saying goes, "everything grows with the sun." To survive, life must have sunlight, water and a suitable temperature, so that life can metabolize and reproduce. However, scientists have discovered a very strange community of organisms in the dark deep sea. So, what do they rely on to survive? The 17th issue of the science popularization public welfare series short video "Reliable" launched by the Zhejiang Science Popularization Federation will reveal the secrets of the deep sea!

Scientific Principles Revealed

In this issue of "Reliable", Mr. Shi Zhanle, the gold medal science expert of Zhejiang Geological Museum, answers our questions!

In fact, there are organisms in many dark places, such as "karst caves" on land, "black chimneys" in the ocean, etc. Teacher Shi used the "black chimney special biological community" in the ocean as an example to explain the mystery of deep-sea life.

In this special area, the mouth of the black chimney will spew out some black or colorless hydrothermal fluids, which mainly contain some metals and sulfur elements. The high temperature generated by the hydrothermal fluids can provide enough temperature for marine life, and the sulfur elements can also nourish some of them, thus forming a small range of biological communities.

Black chimney biota model at Zhejiang Geological Museum

Where does oxygen in the deep sea come from? Oxygen is one of the necessary conditions for life. Scientists speculate that the oxygen in the deep sea environment may mainly come from the transportation of circulation .

Simply put, the thermohaline circulation is like a huge conveyor belt that connects the surface and deep seawater. The oxygen-rich surface seawater sinks and brings oxygen to the deep seawater.

Thermohaline circulation chart source: Zhejiang Ocean Monitoring and Forecast

Scientists have also recently discovered a very new source of oxygen - polymetallic nodules scattered over large areas on the seabed. These nodules are mainly composed of elements such as iron, cobalt and manganese, and the enriched areas can reach hundreds of millions of tons.

Scientists from the Zhejiang Provincial Geological Museum speculate that the metal ions inside the polymetallic nodules may act as catalysts, while seawater acts as an electrolyte. Driven by the potential difference, the seawater undergoes an electrolysis reaction, thereby producing oxygen.

"Although the amount of oxygen produced by a polymetallic nodule may be very small, the ocean may be filled with hundreds of millions of tons of this substance, so the overall oxygen production is still quite considerable!" explained Teacher Shi.

It turns out that the underwater world is so magical! There are "black chimneys" that provide heat, and polymetallic nodules that are "deep-sea batteries" that provide oxygen! In addition, what other topics in life are easily misunderstood by us? Welcome to continue to follow "Reliable"!