Chinese team finds ‘garden-like’ ecosystem blooming in deepest ocean trenches

Rich community of organisms discovered living on rocks at depths of more than 9km, feeding on organic debris from the surface

Scientists have discovered a thriving and previously unknown ecosystem in the planet’s deepest ocean trenches, feeding on organic debris from above.

At those depths the pressure is enough to crush a submarine, and combined with perpetual darkness and temperatures near freezing, it makes the deepest reaches of the oceans among the least explored places on Earth.

Until now, researchers believed that only a few anemones, sponges or bacteria could survive under such conditions.

But an international research team supported by China’s crewed submersible the Fendouzhe, or Striver, has uncovered an unexpectedly rich community living on rocks in trenches deeper than 9km (5.6 miles).

The team – led by Professor Peng Xiaotong from the Institute of Deep‑Sea Science and Engineering at the Chinese Academy of Sciences – reported their findings in the journal Science on May 14.

“Between 2020 and 2024, we used the submersible Fendouzhe to investigate seven hadal trenches, fracture zones and basins in the Indo‑Pacific region, uncovering previously unknown faunas inhabiting extreme hadal depths,” Peng wrote in the paper.