Ocean depths ‘no haven’ from global catastrophes

Presenting the Charles Lyell Award Lecture at the BA Festival, Dr Jon Copley of the University of Southampton is sharing a first-hand account of recent discoveries on the ocean floor, where ‘islands’ of exotic deep-sea life thrive around volcanic vents and other seabed features that were unknown 30 years ago.

Scientists used to think these ‘islands’ on the ocean floor acted as ‘air-raid shelters’ for some species during global catastrophes. Carpets of mussels and swarms of shrimp thrive in these seemingly hostile environments, nourished by minerals seeping from the Earth's crust. This food source is independent of the world above and anything that disrupts it—such as an asteroid slamming into the Earth and blotting out the Sun.

However, Dr Copley and his colleagues have discovered seasons in the sex lives of these shrimp and mussels on the seafloor. Despite living in the dark ocean depths, these species still follow the seasonal cycles of the sunlit world above, breeding in late autumn and hatching their offspring in early spring.

The inhabitants of these ‘islands’ on the ocean floor have plenty of food all year round as adults, thanks to life-sustaining minerals seeping from the Earth's crust. But their offspring grow up away from these havens, feeding on whatever sinks from sunlit surface waters. So the animals time the release of their offspring to coincide with a spring bloom in microscopic plant life growing at the surface. This link to the sunlit world above has been overlooked, according to Dr Copley.

‘I used to think these deep-sea communities would be safe from whatever havoc happens up here,’ says Copley. ‘But finding seasonality down there shows that life beneath the waves is far more connected than we realised. Like nineteenth-century naturalists, we are enjoying a golden age of discovery as we visit these previously-unexplored ‘islands’ in the abyss – and we are gaining new insights into the patterns of life throughout the oceans as we do so.’

Dr Copley warned that as climate change alters the pattern of life in surface waters, these newly-discovered connections could carry its effects to the remote corners of the ocean depths – although researchers have no evidence yet of impacts down there from climate change.

In the next two years Copley and his team plan to undertake the first expedition exploring life at the vents around Antarctica. They also intend to visit the deepest volcanic ridge on Earth and hope to invite the public to get involved.

Dr Jon Copley will give his talk, ‘Seasons where the sun don’t shine: chasing island hopping shrimps in the abyss’ as part of the session BA Award Lecture series on 10 September at Physics PL/001, University of York as part of the BA Festival of Science.

The BA Festival of Science will be in York from 9-15 September, bringing over 350 of the UK’s top scientists and engineers to discuss the latest developments in science with the public. In addition to talks and debates at the University of York, there will be a host of events throughout the city.

For further information about the BA Festival of Science, including an online programme, visit www.the-ba.net/festivalofscience.

This year’s BA Festival of Science is organised by the BA (British Association for the Advancement of Science) in partnership with the University of York, Science City York and the City of York Council. It is supported by the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS), BP and Yorkshire Forward.