The hadal zone, also known as the hadopelagic zone, is the deepest region of the ocean, lying within oceanic trenches. The hadal zone ranges from around 6 to 11 km (3.7 to 6.8 mi; 20,000 to 36,000 ft) below sea level, and exists in long, narrow, topographic V-shaped depressions.[1][2]

The cumulative area occupied by the 46 individual hadal habitats worldwide is less than 0.25% of the world's seafloor, yet trenches account for over 40% of the ocean's depth range.[3] Most hadal habitat is found in the Pacific Ocean.[3]

Terminology and definition

Historically, the hadal zone was not recognized as distinct from the abyssal zone, although the deepest sections were sometimes called "ultra-abyssal". During the early 1950s, the Danish Galathea II and Soviet Vityaz expeditions separately discovered a distinct shift in the life at depths of 6,000–7,000 m (20,000–23,000 ft) not recognized by the broad definition of the abyssal zone.[4][5] The term "hadal" was first proposed in 1956 by Anton Frederik Bruun to describe the parts of the ocean deeper than 6,000 m (20,000 ft), leaving abyssal for the parts at 4,000–6,000 m (13,000–20,000 ft).[6] The name refers to Hades, the ancient Greek god of the underworld.[6] About 94% of the hadal zone is found in subduction trenches.[7]

Depths in excess of 6,000 m (20,000 ft) are generally in ocean trenches, but there are also trenches at shallower depths. These shallower trenches lack the distinct shift in lifeforms and are therefore not hadal.[8][9][10] Although the hadal zone has gained widespread recognition and many continue to use the first proposed limit of 6,000 m (20,000 ft), it has been observed that 6,000–7,000 m (20,000–23,000 ft) represents a gradual transition between the abyssal and hadal zones,[10] leading to the suggestion of placing the limit in the middle, at 6,500 m (21,300 ft). Among others, this intermediate limit has been adopted by UNESCO.[11][12] Similar to other depth ranges, the fauna of the hadal zone can be broadly placed into two groups: the hadobenthic species (compare benthic) living on or at the seabottom/sides of trenches and the hadopelagic species (compare pelagic) living in the open water.[13][14]

Ecology

The hadal zone is the deepest part of the marine environment

The deepest ocean trenches are considered the least explored and most extreme marine ecosystems. They are characterized by complete lack of sunlight, low temperatures, nutrient scarcity, and extremely high hydrostatic pressures. The major sources of nutrients and carbon are fallout from upper layers, drifts of fine sediment, and landslides. Most organisms are scavengers and detrivores. Over 400 species are currently known from hadal ecosystems, many of which possess physiological adaptations to the extreme environmental conditions. There are high levels of endemism, and noteworthy examples of gigantism in amphipods, mysids, and isopods and dwarfism in nematodes, copepods, and kinorhynchs.[15]

The supergiant amphipod (Alicella gigantea) is found in the Hadal zone (collected from Japan Trench, 2022)

Marine life decreases with depth, both in abundance and biomass, but there is a wide range of metazoan organisms in the hadal zone, mostly benthos, including fish, sea cucumber, bristle worms, bivalves, isopods, sea anemones, amphipods, copepods, decapod crustaceans and gastropods. Most of these trench communities probably originated from the abyssal plains. Although they have evolved adaptations to high pressure and low temperatures such as lower metabolism, intra-cellular protein-stabilising osmolytes, and unsaturated fatty acids in cell membrane phospholipids, there is no consistent relationship between pressure and metabolic rate in these communities. Increased pressure can instead constrain the ontogenic or larval stages of organisms. Pressure increases ten-fold as an organism moves from sea level to a depth of 90 m (300 ft), whilst pressure only doubles as an organism moves from 6,000 to 11,000 m (20,000 to 36,000 ft).

Over a geological time scale, trenches can become accessible as previously stenobathic (limited to a narrow depth range) fauna evolve to become eurybathic (adapted to a wider range of depths), such as grenadiers and natantian prawns. Trench communities do, nevertheless, display a contrasting degree of intra-trench endemism and inter-trench similarities at a higher taxonomic level.[5]

Only a relatively small number of fish species are known from the hadal zone, including certain grenadiers, cutthroat eels, pearlfish, cusk-eels, snailfish and eelpouts.[16][17] Due to the extreme pressure, the theoretical maximum depth for vertebral fish may be about 8,000–8,500 m (26,200–27,900 ft), below which teleosts would be hyperosmotic, assuming trimethylamine N-oxide requirements follow the observed approximate linear relationship with depth.[18][19] Some invertebrates do occur deeper, such as certain polynoid worms, myriotrochid sea cucumbers, turrid snails and pardaliscid amphipods in excess of 10,000 m (33,000 ft).[9] In addition, giant protists known as Xenophyophora (foraminifera) live at these depths.[20]

Conditions

The only known primary producers in the hadal zone are certain bacteria that are able to metabolize hydrogen and methane released by rock and seawater reactions (serpentinization),[21] or hydrogen sulfide released from cold seeps. Some of these bacteria are symbiotic, for example living inside the mantle of certain thyasirid and vesicomyid bivalves.[22] Otherwise the first link in the hadal food web are heterotroph organisms that feed on marine snow, both fine particles and the occasional carcass.[21][23]

The hadal zone can reach far below 6,000 m (20,000 ft) deep; the deepest known extends to 10,911 m (35,797 ft).[24] At such depths, the pressure in the hadal zone exceeds 1,100 standard atmospheres (110 MPa; 16,000 psi). Lack of light and extreme pressure makes this part of the ocean difficult to explore.

Exploration

The exploration of the hadal zone requires the use of instruments that are able to withstand pressures of up to a thousand or more atmospheres. A few haphazard and non-standard tools have been used to collect limited, but valuable, information about the basic biology of a few hadal organisms.[25] Manned and unmanned submersibles, however, can be used to study the depths in greater detail. Unmanned robotic submersibles may be remotely operated (connected to the research vessel by a cable) or autonomous (freely moving). Cameras and manipulators on submersibles allow researchers to observe and take samples of sediment and organisms. Failures of submersibles under the immense pressure at hadal zone depths have occurred. HROV Nereus is thought to have imploded at a depth of 9,990 meters while exploring the Kermadec Trench in 2014.[26]

Notable missions

picture of submersible, Bathyscaphe Trieste
Bathyscaphe Trieste in 1958, used by Piccard and Walsh to reach Challenger Deep

The first manned exploration to reach Challenger Deep, the deepest known part of the ocean located in the Mariana Trench, was accomplished in 1960 by Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh.[27] They reached a maximum depth of 10,911 metres (35,797 ft) in the bathyscaphe Trieste.[28][25]

James Cameron also reached the bottom of Mariana Trench in March 2012 using the Deepsea Challenger.[29] The descent of the Deepsea Challenger reached a depth of 10,908 metres (35,787 ft), slightly less than the deepest dive record set by Piccard and Walsh.[30] Cameron holds the record for the deepest solo dive.[28]

In June 2012, the Chinese manned submersible Jiaolong was able to reach 7,020 m (23,030 ft) deep in the Mariana Trench, making it the deepest diving manned research submersible.[31][32] This range surpasses that of the previous record holder, the Japanese-made Shinkai, whose maximum depth is 6,500 m (21,300 ft).[33]

Few unmanned submersibles are capable of descending to maximum hadal depths. The deepest diving unmanned submersibles have included the Kaikō (lost at sea in 2003),[34] the ABISMO,[35] the Nereus (lost at sea in 2014),[26] and the Haidou-1.[36]

See also

  • Abyssal plain – Flat area on the deep ocean floor
  • Deep sea – Lowest layer in the ocean
  • Deep submergence vehicle – Self-propelled deep-diving crewed submersible
  • Abyssal zone – Deep layer of the ocean between 4000 and 9000 meters
  • Sunlight zone – The uppermost layer of a sea water column that is exposed to sunlight – A layer that includes shallow waters and coral reefs

References

  1. ↑ Jamieson, Alan J.; Malkocs, Tamas; Piertney, Stuart B.; Fujii, Toyonobu; Zhang, Zulin (13 February 2017). "Bioaccumulation of persistent organic pollutants in the deepest ocean fauna" (PDF). Nature Ecology & Evolution. 1 (3): 0051. doi:10.1038/s41559-016-0051. hdl:2164/9142. PMID 28812719. S2CID 9192602. Archived (PDF) from the original on 11 October 2017.
  2. ↑ Jamieson, Alan (5 March 2016). "Hadal zone: Ten things you never knew about the ocean's deepest places". International Business Times. Archived from the original on 2 June 2019.
  3. 1 2 Jamieson, Alan (29 April 2014). "All About Trenches". Hadal Ecosystem Studies. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Archived from the original on 20 August 2019.
  4. ↑ Wolff, Torben (1959). "The hadal community, an introduction". Deep Sea Research. 6: 95–124. Bibcode:1959DSR.....6...95W. doi:10.1016/0146-6313(59)90063-2.
  5. 1 2 Jamieson, Alan J.; Fujii, Toyonobu; Mayor, Daniel J.; Solan, Martin; Priede, Imants G. (2010). "Hadal trenches: the ecology of the deepest places on Earth (Review article)" (PDF). Trends in Ecology and Evolution. 25 (3): 190–197. doi:10.1016/j.tree.2009.09.009. PMID 19846236. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 December 2017. Retrieved 9 April 2017.
  6. 1 2 Bruun, Anton Frederik (16 June 1956). "The Abyssal Fauna: Its Ecology, Distribution and Origin". Nature. 177 (4520): 1105–1108. Bibcode:1956Natur.177.1105B. doi:10.1038/1771105a0. S2CID 4182886.
  7. ↑ Exponential growth of hadal science: perspectives and future directions identified using topic modelling
  8. ↑ United Nations (2017). The First Global Integrated Marine Assessment, World Oceans Assessment I. Cambridge University Press. p. 904. ISBN 978-1-316-51001-8. LCCN 2017287717.
  9. 1 2 Jamieson, Alan (2015). The Hadal Zone: Life in the Deepest Oceans. Cambridge University Press. pp. 18–21, 285–318. ISBN 978-1-107-01674-3. LCCN 2014006998.
  10. 1 2 Jamieson, Alan J. (2011). "Ecology of Deep Oceans: Hadal Trenches". eLS. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. doi:10.1002/9780470015902.a0023606. ISBN 978-0470016176.
  11. ↑ Roff, John; Zacharias, Mark (2011). Marine Conservation Ecology. Earthscan. ISBN 978-1-84407-884-4.
  12. ↑ Vierros, Marjo; Cresswell, Ian; Escobar Briones, Elva; Rice, Jake; Ardron, Jeff, eds. (2009). Global Open Oceans and Deep Seabed (GOODS) – Biogeographic Classification. IOC Technical Series. Paris: UNESCO. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
  13. ↑ Thorne-Miller, Boyce; Catena, John (1999). The Living Ocean: Understanding and Protecting Marine Biodiversity (Second ed.). John Wiley & Sons. p. 57. ISBN 1-55963-678-5.
  14. ↑ Meadows, P.S.; Campbell, J.I. (1988). An Introduction to Marine Science. Tertiary Level Biology (2nd ed.). Wiley. p. 7. ISBN 978-0-470-20951-6. LCCN 87020603.
  15. ↑ Ramirez-Llodra, E; Rowden, AA; Jamieson, AJ; Priede, IG; Keith, DA (2020). "M3.6 Hadal trenches and troughs". In Keith, D.A.; Ferrer-Paris, J.R.; Nicholson, E.; Kingsford, R.T. (eds.). The IUCN Global Ecosystem Typology 2.0: Descriptive profiles for biomes and ecosystem functional groups. Gland, Switzerland: IUCN. doi:10.2305/IUCN.CH.2020.13.en. ISBN 978-2-8317-2077-7. S2CID 241360441.
  16. ↑ Linley, Thomas D.; Gerringer, Mackenzie E.; Yancey, Paul H.; Drazen, Jeffrey C.; Weinstock, Chloe L.; Jamieson, Alan J. (August 2016). "Fishes of the hadal zone including new species, in situ observations and depth records of Liparidae". Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers. 114: 99–110. Bibcode:2016DSRI..114...99L. doi:10.1016/j.dsr.2016.05.003.
  17. ↑ Jamieson, Alan J.; Linley, Thomas D.; Eigler, Shane; Macdonald, Tim (1 December 2021). "A global assessment of fishes at lower abyssal and upper hadal depths (5000 to 8000 m)". Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers. 178: 103642. Bibcode:2021DSRI..17803642J. doi:10.1016/j.dsr.2021.103642. ISSN 0967-0637. S2CID 239087034.
  18. ↑ Jamieson, Alan J.; Yancey, Paul H. (June 2012). "On the Validity of the Trieste Flatfish: Dispelling the Myth". The Biological Bulletin. 222 (3): 171–175. doi:10.1086/BBLv222n3p171. JSTOR 41638633. PMID 22815365. S2CID 31549749. Archived from the original on 2019-12-09.
  19. ↑ Yanceya, Paul H.; Gerringera, Mackenzie E.; Drazen, Jeffrey C.; Rowden, Ashley A.; Jamieson, Alan (March 2014). "Marine fish may be biochemically constrained from inhabiting the deepest ocean depths" (PDF). PNAS. 111 (12): 4461–4465. Bibcode:2014PNAS..111.4461Y. doi:10.1073/pnas.1322003111. PMC 3970477. PMID 24591588. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2019-07-04.
  20. ↑ Giant one-celled organisms discovered over six miles below the ocean’s surface
  21. 1 2 Frazer, Jennifer (14 April 2013). "What Lives at the Bottom of the Mariana Trench? More Than You Might Think". Scientific American. Archived from the original on 5 February 2019.
  22. ↑ Fujikura, Katsunori; Kojima, Shigeaki; Tamaki, Kensaku; Maki, Yonosuke; Hunt, James; Okutani, Takashi (4 December 1999). "The deepest chemosynthesis-based community yet discovered from the hadal zone, 7326 m deep, in the Japan Trench" (PDF). Marine Ecology Progress Series. 190: 17–26. Bibcode:1999MEPS..190...17F. doi:10.3354/meps190017. JSTOR 24854626. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2 May 2019.
  23. ↑ Blankenship, Lesley E.; Levin, Lisa A. (July 2007). "Extreme food webs: Foraging strategies and diets of scavenging amphipods from the ocean's deepest 5 kilometers". Limnology and Oceanography. 52 (4): 1685–1697. Bibcode:2007LimOc..52.1685B. doi:10.4319/lo.2007.52.4.1685. JSTOR 4502323.
  24. ↑ "NOAA Ocean Explorer: History: Quotations: Soundings, Sea-Bottom, and Geophysics". NOAA, Office of Ocean Exploration and Research. Retrieved 2010-03-23.
  25. 1 2 "About Hades". Hadal Ecosystem Studies. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Archived from the original on 2019-08-20. Retrieved 2018-04-06.
  26. 1 2 "Robotic Deep-sea Vehicle Lost on Dive to 6-Mile Depth" (Press release). Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. 2014-05-10. Archived from the original on 2019-12-09. Retrieved 2018-04-06.
  27. ↑ ThinkQuest Archived 2007-01-28 at the Wayback Machine. February 1, 2007.
  28. 1 2 "1960: Deepest Manned Ocean Descent". Guinness World Records. 2015-08-19. Retrieved 2018-04-06.
  29. ↑ Than, Ker (March 25, 2012). "James Cameron Completes Record-Breaking Mariana Trench Dive". National Geographic. Archived from the original on September 19, 2019.
  30. ↑ "DEEPSEA CHALLENGE – National Geographic Explorer James Cameron's Expedition". 2014-06-25. Archived from the original on 25 June 2014. Retrieved 2022-01-01.
  31. ↑ "Jiaolong Reaches 7.000 Meters Below Water". Subsea World News. Retrieved 2018-04-06.
  32. ↑ Owens, Brian (25 Jun 2012). "China's Jiaolong submersible plunges below 7,000 metres". blogs.nature.com. Archived from the original on 2019-11-12. Retrieved 2018-04-06.
  33. ↑ "Deep Submergence Research Vehicle – Shinkai 6500". JAMSTEC. Archived from the original on 2019-05-18. Retrieved 2018-04-06.
  34. ↑ "Remotely Operated Vehicle – Kaiko". JAMSTEC. Archived from the original on 2019-09-02. Retrieved 2018-04-06.
  35. ↑ ""ABISMO," Automatic Bottom Inspection and Sampling Mobile, Succeeds in World's First Multiple Vertical Sampling from Mid-ocean, Sea Floor and Sub-seafloor over Depth of 10,000 m in Mariana Trench" (Press release). JAMSTEC. 2008-06-16. Archived from the original on 2018-11-16. Retrieved 2018-04-06.
  36. ↑ "China's Unmanned Submersible Sets New National Record". NDTV. Press Trust of India. 2016-08-23. Archived from the original on 2019-12-09. Retrieved 2019-12-09.
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