Exploration of oxygen-depleted marine environments has consistently revealed novel microbial taxa and metabolic capabilities that expand our understanding of microbial evolution and ecology.
Editor’s note: When we start to mount Astrobiology missions to explore ocean worlds we’ll need ways for our robotic submersibles to observe and interact with whatever life forms they may […]
Vertical transmission of marine particles brings ocean surface cyanobacteria into the deep ocean, where heterotrophic cyanobacterial lineages probably evolve to adapt to new environments even in oxygen-depleted zones.
The goal of this expedition went far beyond collecting sediment cores. Scientists also set out to sample the water stored within the sediments, including from sandy layers that act as […]
Japan has led a major international effort to explore and document new life in the deep ocean. Following the Nippon Foundation–Nekton Ocean Census Expedition in June 2025, partnering with the […]
Hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor release carbon dioxide that is many million years old. This old carbon originates from the Earth’s interior, and it escapes either directly from the […]
A new study led by researchers at the Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) at Institute of Science Tokyo challenges a long-standing assumption about Earth’s most extreme ice ages. Using numerical geochemical […]
A quantitative overview of Earth’s biomass has long been lacking, despite its importance for understanding the biosphere. The first global estimate—approximately 550 gigatons of carbon (Gt C)—reveals stark disparities across […]
Low-temperature (34 °C) hydrothermal fluid was collected from Axial Seamount along the Juan de Fuca Ridge in the northeast Pacific Ocean.
Iceberg A-23A has had a more eventful run than most of the large Antarctic icebergs that have calved from the continent’s ice shelves in recent decades. Over its winding, forty-plus-year […]
