The idea that surface winds can influence deep-sea currents is surprising, and it suggests that the atmosphere's influence may extend far deeper into the oceans than previously thought.
These results suggest that the effects of food supply (energy availability) may be important for certain components but can be compensated or masked by other factors that influence deep-sea diversity.
Now researchers think they know why: pulses of muddy submarine currents that may be influencing deep-sea fisheries around the world.
It has been demonstrated that membrane lipids, proteins and solutes accumulation (piezolytes) can influence bacterial growth in deep sea environments [ 4].
But much less is known about how humans are influencing reefs in the deep sea, where slow-growing cold-water corals may make up two-thirds of all coral species.
The potential influence on deep-sea benthic faunas of mesoscale habitat complexity arising from the presence of abyssal hills is still poorly understood.
"I think this is going to change the way that a lot of people look at macro-organisms and their influence on deep-sea ecosystems," says microbial biogeochemist Mandy Joye of the University of Georgia in Athens.
Pressure is thought to have a significant influence in deep-sea stratification, as piezophilic (barophilic) species have been isolated [18], and specific adaptations such as pressure regulated operons are present in some deep-sea bacteria [19], [20].
Because cascade of dense water from continental shelves is a global phenomenon, we anticipate that its influence on deep-sea ecosystems and fisheries worldwide should be larger than previously thought.
In addition, meiofauna abundance in the deep sea is in general positively influenced by productivity [67].
Corliss, BH, Sun, X, Brown, CW, and Showers, WJ. "Influence of seasonal primary productivity on δ13C of North Atlantic deep-sea benthic foraminifera". Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers 53, no. 4 (April 1, 2006): 740-746.
