The seafloor has no shortage of spiky wildlife or hairy mysteries. One such mystery is logistical: where do the animals that live around deep-sea vents and cold seeps come from?
On the black and generally barren bottom of the ocean, food is scarce. Hydrothermal vents and cold seeps—places where methane, sulfides and other chemical goodies leak out of the seafloor—are like desert oases. Whole communities of weird creatures that live on these chemicals rather than the sun cluster around them.
Researchers think big pieces of organic junk that fall to the bottom of the ocean, such as sunken ships and deceased whales (called "whale falls"), may act as stepping stones for these communities. Species might disperse from one seafloor chimney to the next via a visit to a wrecked ship.
"Wood is a foreign substance in the deep sea," says Christina Bienhold of the Max Planck Institute. To find out ...
