This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: A biological methane filter on the seafloor can form much faster than scientists previously believed. An international research team including a University of Bremen researcher observed this over six years at a newly formed methane seep in the deep sea.
Earlier models assumed this process would take several decades. The study appears in National Science Review. The site sits in the South China Sea, at a depth of 1,766 meters (5,794 feet).
A drilling operation exploring gas hydrates took place there in 2018. Before the drilling, researchers detected neither gas flow nor any notable colonization of the seafloor. Between 2018 and 2023, the team, which included microbiologist Emil Ruff of the University of Bremen, tracked the ecosystem's development.
They surveyed the site regularly using echo sounders, underwater cameras, chemical sensors, sediment samples and genetic analysis. Microorganisms that can consume methane even in oxygen-free layers of the seafloor play a central role in the biofilter. Because this metabolic process yields only a small amount of energy, these microorganisms typically grow very slowly.
At the new seep, however, they multiplied far faster than earlier estimates would have predicted. Their numbers doubled roughly every 21 to 38 days during the early stages of development, compared with earlier estimates of 100 to 200 days. "Within just one to two years, an effective methane-consuming ecosystem had already formed," Ruff says.
Within two to three years, he says, the microorganisms and the newly established animal life had functionally merged into a complex biofilter. As microorganism numbers grew, burrowing bristle worms also colonized the seafloor, which had previously been largely uninhabited. "They mixed the sediment to a depth of more than 50 centimeters (20 inches)," Ruff says.
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