The scientist who discovered lightless ‘dark oxygen’ production near the ocean floor is embarking on a landmark new study with huge ramifications.
Professor Andrew Sweetman of the Scottish Association for Marine Science [SAMS] has already astounded the academic community by revealing research confirming so-called ‘dark oxygen’ can be produced without light. This altered understandings of where the life-giving gas can form and its reliance on photosynthesis, and the types of environments which are capable of sustaining living organisms.
Now, thanks to £2million funding from The Nippon Foundation, Sweetman and his team will send bespoke sensors to the deepest parts of the ocean to further investigate the process involved in producing O2 without the energy provided by sunlight. In turn, NASA believes this could offer new clues as to how live began on the planet, and the ways in which it may exist off-world in locations not previously considered as potential habitats.
‘Our discovery of Dark Oxygen was a paradigm shift in our understanding of the deep sea and potentially life on Earth, but it threw up more questions than answers,’ said Professor Sweetman. ‘This new research will enable us to probe some of these scientific questions.
‘If we show that oxygen production is possible in the absence of photosynthesis, it changes the way we look at the possibility of life on other planets too,’ he continued. ‘Indeed, we are already in conversation with experts at NASA who believe Dark Oxygen could reshape our understanding of how life might be sustained on other planets without direct sunlight.’
The project will involve specially made autonomous landers, or rigs, which can carry instrumentation to depths of up to 11,000metres, where pressure exceeds 1tonne per centimetre. Spanning three years, work will focus on establishing whether hydrogen is released alongside oxygen, and if this is used as an energy source by a community of microbes present in certain marine areas, described ina Nippon Foundation press release as ‘unusually large’.
The ways in which climate change might impact biological activity in at extreme depths will also be investigated. This is the first time scientists will have explored these processes and the Hadal Zone – aquatic areas between 6,000 and 11,000 metres below the surface of the ocean, which make up 45% of its global coverage.
‘The sea is vital to sustaining human life and biodiversity, but even today so much of the deep sea is unknown,’ said Yohei Sasakawa, Chairman of The Nippon Foundation. ‘We are passionate about innovating to achieve a better society, and we are proud to support Professor Sweetman’s research into Dark Oxygen in the hope that we might learn more about the deep sea and the life which exists at the bottom of the ocean.”
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Image: Conner Baker via Unsplash