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- The benthic biome of the deep-sea floor, one of the largest biomes on Earth, is dominated by diverse and highly productive heterotrophic protists, second only to prokaryotes in terms of biomass. Recent evidence suggests that these protists play a significant role in ocean biogeochemistry, representing an untapped source of knowledge.
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Apr 23, 2021 · Deep-sea protists, including many parasitic species, represent thus one of the most diverse biodiversity compartments of the Earth system, forming an essential link to metazoans.
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As deep-sea mining threatens to encroach on previously untouched seafloor habitats and climate change warms and acidifies the seas, the ocean's ecosystems are on the brink of profound change.
Marine protists are defined by their habitat as protists that live in marine environments, that is, in the saltwater of seas or oceans or the brackish water of coastal estuaries. Life originated as marine single-celled prokaryotes (bacteria and archaea) and later evolved into more complex eukaryotes. Eukaryotes are the more developed life forms ...
Apr 23, 2021 · Highly diverse and abundant protists are embedded in deep-sea food webs on different trophic levels as feeders on prokaryotes and particulate and dissolved organic matter, as predators, as well as parasites of metazoans and protists.
- Alexandra Schoenle, Manon Hohlfeld, Karoline Hermanns, Frédéric Mahé, Colomban de Vargas, Frank Nits...
- 10.1038/s42003-021-02012-5
- 2021
- Commun Biol. 2021; 4: 501.
- 80 million years old—Frilled shark. Found in the dark abyss of the deep sea, frilled sharks have been lurking in the shadows for approximately 80 million years.
- 360 million years old—Coelacanth. Thought to have gone extinct 65 million years ago (along with the mass extinction of dinosaurs), the coelacanth (pronounced SEEL-uh-kanth) was rediscovered in 1938.
- 360 million years old—Lamprey. The lamprey is a parasitic fish that has survived four major evolutionary extinctions in their 360 million years of swimming the ocean—though they are now mainly confined to the Atlantic Ocean and (a non-native population) in the Great Lakes.
- 450 million years old—Horseshoe crab. The horseshoe crab is one of evolution’s ultimate survivors, dating back 450 million years—outliving the dawn of dinosaurs and five mass extinctions.
Apr 23, 2021 · Heterotrophic protists (unicellular eukaryotes) form a major link from bacteria and algae to higher trophic levels in the sunlit ocean. Their role on the deep seafloor, however, is only fragmentarily understood, despite their potential key function for global carbon cycling.
Scientists say we now have the most precise information yet on the deepest points in each of Earth's five oceans. The key locations where the seafloor bottoms out in the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian...
