Flourishing chemosynthetic life at the greatest depths of hadal trenches

Abstract

Hadal trenches, some of the Earth’s least explored and understood environments, have long been proposed to harbour chemosynthesis-based communities^1,2. Despite increasing attention, actual documentation of such communities has been exceptionally rare^3,4. Here we report the discovery of the deepest and the most extensive chemosynthesis-based communities known to exist on Earth during an expedition to the Kuril–Kamchatka Trench and the western Aleutian Trench using the manned submersible Fendouzhe. The communities dominated by siboglinid Polychaeta and Bivalvia span a distance of 2,500 km at depths from 5,800 m to 9,533 m. These communities are sustained by hydrogen sulfide-rich and methane-rich fluids that are transported along faults traversing deep sediment layers in trenches, where methane is produced microbially from deposited organic matter, as indicated by isotopic analysis. Given geological similarities with other hadal trenches, such chemosynthesis-based communities might be more widespread than previously anticipated. These findings challenge current models of life at extreme limits and carbon cycling in the deep ocean.