Ocean hills yield secret ecosystems

Abstract

A treasure trove of biodiversity has been hiding several kilometers below the ocean surface. Only a handful of people have ever seen these enigmatic animals--until now. About two-thirds of this seabed is made up of gentle rolling hills a few hundred meters high, says Jennifer Durden at the University of Southampton in UK. The Porcupine Abyssal Plain in the Atlantic Ocean, just south-west of Ireland, has both hills and flat regions. To survey the area's biology, Durden and her team used a towed submersible camera and looked at eight sites, four in the abyssal plain and four atop nearby hills, between 4,000 and 5,000 m deep.