Explorers Inventory Hard-to-See Sea Life: Tiny but Mighty Microbes, Plankton, Larvae, Burrowers -- Keys to Earth’s Food and Respiratory Systems

Census of Marine Life

Washington DC

18-Apr-2010

Microbial mat the size of Greece found on oxygen-starved South American seafloor; Scientists puzzle out Neptune’s riotous diversity of tiny creatures; “In no other ocean realm has discovery been as extensive”; Explorers yet to find any lifeless place on Earth below 150°C; Release of historic global ocean Census: October 4, 2010

Ocean explorers are puzzling out Nature’s purpose behind an astonishing variety of tiny ocean creatures like microbes and zooplankton animals – each perhaps a ticket-holder in life’s lottery, awaiting conditions that will allow it to prosper and dominate.

The inventory and study of the hardest-to-see sea species -- tiny microbes, zooplankton, larvae and burrowers in the sea bed, which together underpin almost all other life on Earth -- is the focus of four of 14 field projects of the Census of Marine Life.

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