On December 5th, led by Xiao Xiang, director of the International Research Center for Deep Life of Shanghai Jiaotong University, professor of the College of Life Science and Technology, and double-employed professor of the Sanya Yazhou Bay Deep-sea Science and Technology Research Institute of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, the "four-person deep-sea scientific expedition team" of Jiaotong University took the "Exploration No. 1" scientific research vessel, ended the mission of the abyss scientific expedition in the western Pacific Ocean, and successfully returned to Sanya.
Photo: The scientific expedition team captured macro organisms such as sea cucumbers, starfish, anemones, sponges, etc.
During this voyage, Professor Xiao Xiang's team successfully completed 8 diving operations (2 10,000 meters and 3 9,000 meters) with the Strivers manned submersible, including the Mariana Trench "Challenger Abyss" and the unknown area where humans first arrived at the 8919 meters deep of the Yapu Trench; collected and processed more than 200 precious abyss samples from sites, including water bodies, sediments, rocks and macro organisms, and measured a series of environmental parameters, providing valuable materials and valuable data for the study of abyss ecosystems.
In addition to Xiao Xiang, there are three young members of Jiaotong University's "four-person deep-sea scientific expedition team", namely Zhang Yu, a researcher at the School of Oceanography of Shanghai Jiaotong University, Wang Yinzhao, an associate researcher at the College of Life Science and Technology, and Zhao Weizhen, an assistant researcher, the latter two of whom are "post-85s" born in 1988. During this expedition, the four of them dived to the east-west pit and the north-south slopes at the bottom of the "Challenger Abyss" of the Mariana Trench. Before that, Xiao Xiang and two submariners arrived at an unknown area of 8919 meters deep in the Yapu Trench, which was the first time humans had reached this area. After two sections of TS21-1 and TS21-2, the researchers of Shanghai Jiaotong University have carried out 8 abyss-level large-depth scientific expeditions, and two of them have reached the deepest point of the ocean, which is unprecedented in international universities.
"At the bottom of the Yap Trench, we found and captured macromots such as sea cucumbers, starfish, anemones, sponges, etc., and the high density of macromotility also hinted at the abundance of microorganisms in sediments and water bodies. Although humans never arrived, we observed the effects of human activities (garbage). Xiao Xiang said that they also caught two different types of hook shrimp at the bottom of the West Pit of the Mariana Trench, and collected samples such as sea cucumbers, "We found that whether it is the size of macro organisms or the density of macro organisms, the 10,000-meter trench is less than 9,000 meters and shallow, but on the whole, this is by no means a forbidden area for life, and the impact of human activities on the deepest point of the ocean is also visible from time to time." Our main work is still around the abyss of microorganisms, followed by research such as laboratory simulation culture to answer major scientific questions such as biodiversity, origin and boundaries of life, the impact of climate change, and pollutant degradation. ”
Dives of more than 13 hours and sample processing over 24 hours thereafter... Such high-intensity work has become "commonplace" for the "four-person deep-sea scientific expedition team". No matter how sunny the outdoors are, Wang Yinzhao's work is done in a low-temperature cold storage at 4 °C; Zhang Yu went to sea from August 11 to December 5, working at sea for nearly 4 months; Zhao Weizhen did hundreds of samples of high-pressure culture during the voyage, and four high-pressure pumps were broken and repaired. Long-term repetitive mechanical operations have caused Zhang Yu and Zhao Weizhen to have different degrees of fatigue damage to the fingers, wrists, waist, etc., but they have always adhered to the high standard of sample processing and preservation.
During the diving work, there are about 1.5-2 hours of scientific reports every day, scientists from different disciplines and different units, submariners, and crew members exchange experience and collide ideas, forming a more effective way of cooperation, everyone watches dozens of hours of deep-sea in situ videos and photos and analyzes them, learns the marine field work experience and the use of equipment, and assumes corresponding responsibilities.
The International Research Center for Deep Life of Shanghai Jiaotong University is the earliest team in China to carry out deep-sea microbial research, and in 2018, it was funded by the Innovation Group of the National Natural Science Foundation of China to propose and carry out collaborative research around the theory of "high-pressure life co-adaptation" in the deep sea. The Center is also the only international group of scientists in the international deep life research organization, and in 2021, it hosted the selection of 5 excellent papers published in 2020 and 2 academic rising stars of deep life in the world. As the co-chief unit of the voyage, the team reached a consensus with other scientists participating in the voyage, systematically and continuously carried out environmental and ecological research in the Mariana Trench, and focused on the abyss scientific expedition to jointly tackle major scientific issues such as the formation and evolution of the abyss Earth system, the origin of life and environmental adaptation, biodiversity and climate change. The initiative takes "voluntary compliance and conscious practice" as the principle to establish a standardized platform system for abyss scientific expeditions to achieve long-term preservation and sharing of abyss scientific expedition samples and data, and to support international big scientific cooperation around abyss.
Special correspondent Jiang Qianqian Xinmin Evening News reporter Yi Rong