Despite humans normally only worrying about our daily lives on stable ground, seventy percent of our planet is ocean and far from empty. The biodiversity in the ocean is far greater than that on land. With this in mind, researchers found a way to explore more of the ocean.
A Secret Lying Under The Depths
Despite mapping much of the ocean floor, only five percent of it has been explored. Sending divers can be dangerous at deeper depths, and there is a hard limit on how far down they can explore. Unmanned drones are expensive to use, but using sharks is a new method of discovering more about the ocean around us.
The Tiger Sharks Led The Way
Scientists studying tiger sharks published their study in the journal Nature Communications. They decided to attach underwater cameras to the animals to better understand their behavior in the sea depths. The sharks led them to a startling secret that had been hidden under their noses for years.
Seagrass Forests
Seagrass forests are important for many reasons, but scientists don’t know how much covers the ocean as aerial photos and deep sea scans struggle to detect them. Tiger sharks are one of many animals that like to use seagrass forests as their habitat.
The Bahama Banks
Although researchers have believed for many years that a large seagrass forest could lie off the Bahama banks, it isn’t shown in aerial photos very often. The shallowness of this part of the ocean helped keep the forest hidden, creating a glare from the sea floor that reflected back.
The Largest Underwater Forest
The camera footage showed many surprising things about tiger sharks, but most notably, the sharks led the scientists to something they didn’t know existed—the world’s largest underwater forest of seagrass that houses a lot of the ocean’s biodiversity.
A Vital Ecosystem
The forest is estimated to be the largest that’s ever been found. It stretches 35,000 square miles on the seafloor and is vital for the many ocean ecosystems as marine life goes there for shelter, food, and to use the forests as nurseries.
Seagrass And Its Importance
Seagrass forests act as nurseries for many underwater species of fish and shellfish, including those essential to commercial industries like fishing. Seagrass also helps with climate change by a process called carbon sequestration.
Important For Climate Change
They capture and store carbon dioxide, so there’s less of it trapped in the atmosphere, causing the temperature to rise slowly each year. A forest of this size also means that many marine animals can use it as a natural shelter.
Knowing Where There’s Seagrass Is Important
Finding out where seagrass is and isn’t is crucial because it is crucial for not just marine life but our planet as a whole. With its ability to impact climate change, we mustn’t inadvertently disturb it.
Most Of It Hasn’t Been Found
Knowing which areas should be left alone may save the future of many species on Earth. It is believed that more than half of the seagrass in the ocean has not been found yet – hiding much of the ocean’s marine animals’ habits from prying eyes.
Taking Us Further
With the information the scientists learned from attaching the underwater cameras to the tiger sharks, there is hope that we can use this same method for other mammals to learn more about the habitats we can’t normally visit ourselves.
Seeing More Of The World Around Us
Imagine seeing a bird’s full migration from their point of view. Until now, we’ve mostly used GPS trackers to see where animals go but have been blind to the world around them.
Source:
Tiger sharks support the characterization of the world’s largest seagrass ecosystem.
Stay connected with us for more stories like this! Follow us to get the latest updates or hit the Follow button at the top of this article, and let us know what you think by leaving your feedback below. We’d love to hear from you!
