Humans and elephants both have to take a bow before a family of organisms which aren’t even visible to the naked eye. In terms of sheer numbers and by mass, microbes are huge.
The title of this post is just one of the comparative results drawn up by a 10 year study – Census of Marine Life.
The total number of microbial form of cellular life in the deep oceans is a mind boggling one followed by 30 zeros (a nonillion). It’s only this number but also the sheer variety of life that turned up in one of the most extensive studies ever undertaken.
Mitch Sogin of the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and head of the marine microbe census said –
“In no other realm of ocean life has the magnitude of Census discovery been as extensive as in the world of microbes.”
The study uncovered a lot of unknown and unseen forms of microbial life, along with zooplankton, larvae, crustaceans, worms etc. The invisible bulk made up of life forms like these, makes up 50 to 90 percent of the biomass in the seas.
A remarkable find has been that some of the biggest masses of life on the planet are carpets on the seabed made by giant multi-cellular bacteria that resemble thin strands of spaghetti. The total area occupied by these organisms is nearly that of Greece. They feed on hydrogen sulphide in a zone of oxygen-starved waters off Peru and Chile.
Victor Gallardo, one of the prominent heads of the study, said –
“Fishermen sometimes can’t lift nets from the bottom because they have more bacteria than shrimp. We’ve measured them up to a kilo (2.2 lbs) per square meter.”
The bacterial colonies are similar to ecosystems on earth that thrived from 2.5 billion to 650 million years ago. They are also an important part of the rich food chain in the Pacific as they are feed for shrimps and worms.
A lot many species are still left to be discovered. From hot thermal vents to deep abyss of oceans, there are uncharted areas of the ocean which may be harboring ocean life. The right conditions maybe will bring about a population boom.
The 10 year long study, due to be completed in October of this year, has barely scratched the surface when it comes to discovering the diversity in the oceans.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
