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The deeper under the Earth's surface, the more species you can find


Different species thrive beneath the oceans than under the land.

Led by Emil Ruff of the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), Woods Hole, Mass., new research has unearthed communities of underground microbes that are almost as—and sometimes more—diverse than even reefs and rainforests. Ruff and his team found that subsurface bacteria and archaea are flourishing, even at depths where the energy supply is orders of magnitude lower than enjoyed by organisms in habitats that see the sun. Subsurface samples of bacteria and archaea (many of which could only be reached via mines or boreholes) came from rocks, aquifers, and deep sediments found in deserts, springs, the bottom of the ocean, and other habitats.

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