Census of Marine Life-affiliated scientists, plumbing the secrets of a vast underwater mountain range south of New Zealand, captured the first images of a novel Brittlestar City established against daunting odds on the peak of a seamount an underwater summit taller than the worlds tallest building.
Its cramped starfish-like inhabitants, tens of millions living arm tip to arm tip, owe their success to the seamounts shape and to the swirling circumpolar current flowing over and around it at roughly four kilometers per hour. It allows Brittlestar Citys underwater denizens to capture passing food simply by raising their arms, and it sweeps away fish and other hovering would-be predators.
Discovery of this marine metropolis, announced today along with important new insights into seamount geology and physics, highlighted a month-long April expedition to survey the Macquarie Ridge aboard the Research Vessel Tangaroa of New Zealands National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research, host of the Census of Marine Life seamount programme, CenSeam. The voyage was largely funded by the New Zealand Foundation for Research, Science and Technology.
Formed at least 12.5 million years ago, Macquarie Ridge stretches 1,400 km south from New Zealand to just above the Antarctic Circle. A multi-disciplinary scientific team from New Zealand and Australia extensively sampled this intriguing ecosystem deep beneath waves familiar to fishing trawlers but rarely reached by scientists.
Macquarie Ridge is one of a few places where the Antarctic Circumpolar Current is detoured in its endless clockwise churn at the globes southernmost latitudes playing a vital part in the global ecosystem, merging and mixing waters of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans.
Usually corals and sponges dominate seamount peaks, filtering food that arrives on the current. Biologists aboard the Tangaroa believe Brittlestar City is the first dense agg
'/>"/>
| Contact: Terry Collins terrycollins@rogers.com 416-538-8712 Census of Marine Life Source:Eurekalert |
Related biology news :
1. Species explorers ask: Whats on Your planet?
2. JILA finds flaw in model describing DNA elasticity
3. City birds better than rural species in coping with human disruption
4. Ecologists discover city is uber-forest for big owls
5. Portable electricity, life-like prosthetics on the way
6. Fujitsu Announces Industry Highest Capacity 2.5 Inch SATA Hard Disk Drive at 320GB(1)
7. A search for protection against chemotherapy cardiotoxicity
8. Carbon sink capacity in northern forests reduced by global warming
9. CSIC and UAB will build the most advanced superconductor cable for electricity network
10. Genetic variant predicts antipsychotic response for schizophrenia patients by ethnicity
11. New chemical tool kit manipulates mitochondria, reveals insights into drug toxicity
 |
| Copyright © 2003-2012 Bio-Medicine. All rights reserved. ABOUT | CONTACT US | DISCLAIMER | PRIVACY POLICY | TERMS AND CONDITIONS |  |