The half-metre-wide mouth of a 2-metre high "waffle-cone" sponge, found at a depth of 2197 m in the Tasman Fracture Zone. The Tasman Fracture Zone is approximately 350 km south-west of Hobart.
Credit: Advanced Imaging and Visualization Laboratory WHOI
A bright red, undescribed species of shell-less coral, called an anthomastid or gorgons-head coral, at 1700 m deep at the Cascade Plateau, off south-east Tasmania.
Credit: Advanced Imaging and Visualization Laboratory WHOI
One of Australia's deepest residents – a bizarre carnivorous sea squirt, or ascidian, standing half a meter tall on the seafloor on the Tasman Fracture Zone at a depth of 4006 metres. The animal feeds opportunistically, triggered when a fish or any other swimming organism touches it. The animal is then trapped by the funnel-like front section, which collapses around the prey item.
Credit: Advanced Imaging and Visualization Laboratory WHOI
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"Modern-day deep-water coral reefs were also found, however, there is strong evidence that this reef system is dying, with most reef-forming coral deeper than 1,300 metres newly dead," he said.
Though close analysis of samples was still required, Thresher said modelling suggested ocean acidification could be responsible.
"If our analysis identifies this phenomenon as the cause of the reef system's demise, then the impact we are seeing now below 1,300 m might extend to the shallower portions of the deep-reefs over the next 50 years, threatening this entire community," he said.
Demise of the reef
Rising sea temperatures are blamed on global warming caused by the build-up in the atmosphere of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide – which is also blamed for higher acidity in sea water.
A U.N. report warned in 2007 that Australia's Great Barrier Reef, described as the world's largest living organism, could be killed by climate change within decades.
The World Heritage Site and major tourist attraction, stretching over more than 345,000 square kilometres off Australia's east coast, could become "functionally extinct", the report said.
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Comments
Rising see temperatures are a direct result of global warming. Temperatures are continuing to rise, but the biggest threat to our oceans is ocean acidification and the problems that this will have on biodiversity and feedback loops across the globe.