SAMS to lead examination into Dark Oxygen discovery

The research team also seeks to understand if Dark Oxygen production takes place in other deep-sea areas and will take various measurements and readings to help identify the source. The investigations will begin later this year.

The support package from The Nippon Foundation will cover analysis costs for research in the central Pacific Ocean and the development of purpose-built and autonomous landers, or rigs, to carry specialist instrumentation to depths of 11,000 metres, where the pressure is more than one ton per square centimetre.

The three-year research programme will also investigate whether hydrogen is released during the creation of Dark Oxygen, and whether it is used as an energy source for an unusually large community of microbes in parts of the deep ocean, as well as how climate change might impact biological activity in the deep sea.

The project will be the first of its kind to directly explore these processes and will allow researchers to study the deep seafloor into the Hadal Zone as well, an area which reaches 6,000 – 11,000 metres depth and makes up around 45 per cent of the entire ocean.

 The purpose-built landers used to conduct the investigation will be the first UK-based assets with the capability of sampling below 6,000 metres depth.

Yohei Sasakawa, chairman of The Nippon Foundation, said: “The sea is vital to sustaining human life and biodiversity, but even today so much of the deep sea is unknown.

"We are passionate about innovating to achieve a better society, and we are proud to support Professor Sweetman’s research into Dark Oxygen in the hope that we might learn more about the deep sea and the life which exists at the bottom of the ocean.”

Prof Nick Owens, director of SAMS, added: “The discovery of Dark Oxygen last year was arguably the most significant in the history of SAMS, and has reinforced the UK’s standing as a global leader in marine exploration.

“As an institution, we trace our roots back to the UK’s Challenger Expedition of 1872-76. It is fitting that 150 years after that expedition gave us our first insights into the deep ocean, we are now uncovering some of its best-kept secrets.”