Deep-sea discoveries

Using high-tech robotic cameras, a team of scientists is getting a rare first glimpse of marine life in the North Atlantic that could shed light on the ocean's ecosystem and climate to as far back as 1,000 years. Images of tulip-shaped sponges, brightly colored corals, delicate pink stars and feathery organisms were among the breathtaking marine life beamed up by a submersible robot that scoured the ocean bed at a depth of some 9,800 feet [3,000 meters] off the Atlantic coast of Newfoundland.

 Exploring these areas is important because they contain the "trees of the ocean". The scientists potentially can look at the coral's chemical composition and determine the temperature of the water and other data from 1,000 years ago and with that they are able to say if there is warming or a change in climate direction.

Corals have been a highly successful life form for 250 million years. They are tiny animals and polyps that exist as genetically identical individuals and can eat, defend themselves and kill plankton for food. In the process they also secrete calcium carbonate, which becomes the basis for an external skeleton on which they sit. These calcified deposits can grow to enormous sizes over a long period of time and form coral reefs. The reefs are among the world's most productive ecosystems and can harbor more than 4,000 species of fish and many other marine life forms. Some estimates have suggested 20 percent of the world's coral reefs are already dead and an additional 24 percent are gravely threatened.