Half of life could be hidden undersea

Imogen Neale -

Half of the Earth's living matter could be locked two to three kilometres below the ocean floor.

New Zealand co-ordinator for the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program, Guiseppe Cortese says the findings are thanks to IODP geosciences research programme.

For two months a crew of international scientists onboard the IODP's research vessel the JOIDES Resolution have studied the subsurface life in a largely unexplored region of the ocean between South America and Australia called the South Pacific Gyre.

In oceanography a gyre is a circular system of ocean currents.

"People are putting lots of effort into understand these things because it is completely new," Cortese said.

"Basically we didn't even know that this life existed and suddenly people are estimating now that more or less half of the biomass on earth is actually locked in these places."

The bacteria lives under very special conditions, he said.

"Some of them live with a very very small amount of organic matter, like energy sources or food, which means their metabolism is completely different from other life forms.

Understanding their metabolism could lead to the development of new medicines and technology.

The JOIDES Resolution arrives in Auckland today to exchange scientific teams.

On Wednesday it sets sail again - this time on a two month expedition that will see another team scientists drilling up to 350m below the sea floor to collect samples of four extinct volcanoes that form part of the 4300 km underwater Louisville Seamount Trail volcanic chain.

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