172 



THE NEW YORK TIMES, TUESDAY. OCTOBER 17. im 



Deep Sea Floors Teem With Diversity of Life 



Continued From Page CI 



thcyo 



s probably conservallve," 



Half-inch crustacean, Ischnomcsus brunni, from sea floor. 



pnnly driven by reproductive Isola- 

 lion. Species oficn arise, he held, 

 when barriers like mountains or de- 

 serts prevent the Interbreeding of 



bate. Dr. Robert M. May, a zoologist 

 at Oxford University, faulted the fig- 

 ures as unsupportable and said that 

 the deep total was unlikely lo exceed 

 a half million species. 



By contrast. Dr. Gary C. B. Poore 

 and Dr. George D. p. Wilson, Aus- 

 tralian biologists, said their own field 

 studies In the Pacific suggested that 

 global species richness was even 

 greater than 10 million. 



"We suspect new estimates could 

 be much higher." they wrote In the 

 Feb. 16. 1993, Issue of the journal 

 Nature. 



Other experts, such as Dr. Lamb- 

 shead of the Natural History Mu- 

 seum, formerly the British Museum, 

 suggested that the estimates would 



im kept the sam 

 t during rciricval. 



mplc from 



Pacific and Caribbean tslcs. 



In this case, however, the endcmlc- 

 Ity is occurring in water — a medium 

 famous for Its lack of Isolating barrl- 



geographic 



scientific h 

 explaining i 



fact Darwin ; 



history. 



The potential commercial value of 

 the new organisms lies in their great 

 gcncttc diversity. In general, all 



taboHsms from odd places around 

 the earth are starting to be aggres- 

 sively Investigated as possible 

 ' biological wealth. 11ic 



hy the land appeared to 

 so much richer biologically than 

 sea. This logic seemed reinforced 

 considering the deep, which not 

 few environmental barriers 

 lacked primary producers such 

 as plants. For food. Its Inhabitants 

 mainly had lo rely on a rain of organ- 

 ic scraps falling from far above nr to 

 prey on niic nnolhcr. 



Expeditions over the decades that 

 dropped lines and dredges into the 

 deep seemed lo confirm the waste- 

 land Idea. The few glimmerings of 

 life that were discovered tended to 

 be monotonously similar. The sea 

 cucumbers of the deep Atlantic were 



The first hint 

 Ically diffcrcnl 



In the field, allowing a nci 

 precision. Now, for the first 

 distribution of deep fauna 

 exactly mapped. Though I 

 samples were small, repeated ones 

 over a region could give a clear 



f species density. 



1980's. with 

 the field rea 

 Dr. Grassle, 



of ihc United States for llic Interior 

 Department's Minerals Manage- 

 ment Service, which was considering 

 oil and gas development In deep wa- 



Dr. Hesslcr of Scrlpps. the d« 



New drugs may 

 emerge from a vast 

 pool of exotic genes 

 in the depths. 



biodiversity pioneer, said In an Inter- 



Armed with a few ml 

 Dr. Grassle, Dr. Nancy J. Mnclolck. 

 Dr. James A. Blake and Dr. Brigitte 

 Hllbig. among others. In the mld- 

 19S0'sdropf>ed box corers measuring 

 one fool square Into waters off Dela- 

 ware, New Jersey. New England. 



Souih Carolina. A 



total of 55G box I 



taken at sites up to 2.2 miles deep. 



The feast of life extracted from the 



great that l 



dollars, 'f'clr rough 



limaies. '"What 



seemingly i\ 

 of Darwin. Dr. Grassle of Rutgers 

 said the disparity i 

 apparent than real His ' 



gcsts that extraordinarily 



dcrsianding the fate o 



"Species diversity is one of tli 

 most sensitive Indicators of change. 



dccp-sca taxonomy, in 

 short, the richness was debatable. 



The work was slowly extended In 

 the 1970's lo many new sites in the 

 Pacific and Atlantic, with similar 

 startling results. Even so, skepticism 

 continued In some circles because 

 the sampling was Imprecise. Sled 

 runs tor diffcrcnl limes and speeds 

 produced different results. And It 

 was hard lo know how far the sleds 



ul might Iwld 1 

 species of small invertebrates. As- 

 suming ihai abyssal regions far 

 from coiUlncnl.nl shciv) 

 less life, ibcy said, a ni 

 number was 10 millions 



the new population csti- 

 at Just Identifying 

 [ the abyss could 



■•The kinds of n 



* up with are frightening," he said. 

 f we're only halfway right, many 

 eclcs could be forced into extlnc- 

 •n before they'r 



»facl 



the density of sampled II 



ambiguous. 



So Dr. Hessler, after I 

 Scrlpps. worked with 



