Scientists Find South Pacific Gyre As 'Deadest Spot In Ocean'

June 23, 2009 10:53 p.m. EST

Narragansett, RI (AHN) - The seafloor of the South Pacific Gyre has the fewest organisms making it the least inhabited place on Earth, according to researchers from the University of Rhode Island.

In their study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the URI researchers led by oceanographer Steven D'Hondt compared the number of organisms found in the South Pacific's subseafloor sediments with those found in sites outside the gyre to arrive at their conclusion.

There were less living cells and less amount of respiration in the sediments collected and examined during a 2007 expedition prompting D'Hondt to describe the center of the South Pacific Gyre as "the deadest spot in the ocean," according to the URI's website.

Finding that the burial rate of organic matter was so low in the sediment, D'Hondt believes that the principle food source for the microorganisms living there may be hydrogen released by the radioactive splitting of water due to the natural decay of elements in the sediment.

The researchers will conduct another study to verify if hydrogen is the food of the few organisms in the seafloor.