In a matter of days, hundreds of researchers will gather in the UK to discuss the dangers facing our oceans and pay tribute to the expedition that first paved the way for scientific scrutiny.

Just 150 years ago, the Challenger expedition began to change our understanding of the ocean. It revealed a myriad of life forms at every depth, and showed that the ocean floor was not the featureless plains that were thought at the time, but was dotted with mountains and deep trenches.

“We know that the ocean plays a fundamental role in driving chemical, physical and biological processes on Earth,” said Nick Owens, Director of the Scottish Marine Science Society. “They are extremely important to the health of the planet, and they suffer from multiple threats today. It is appropriate to mark her 150th anniversary of

When the Challenger set sail, the oceans were largely unaffected by global warming. Acidification due to absorption of carbon dioxide was not an issue. And the millions of tons of plastic that currently pollute our oceans remained a distant threat. It provides a baseline.

The Challenger sailed from Sheerness in December 1872 with 250 sailors, engineers, marines and six scientists led by the Scottish naturalist Sir Charles Wyvil Thomson. Over the next four years, the vessel, powered by steam engines for dredging, sailed 68,890 nautical miles across the Pacific, Atlantic and Southern Oceans. She collected 133 scoops from the ocean floor. She conducted 492 deep-sea soundings and along her route she made 263 consecutive temperature observations.

Aside from measuring ocean depth, water temperature and currents, the expedition collected marine life from every corner of the ocean. Over 100,000 species were collected, preserved and returned to the expedition headquarters in Edinburgh. The study of these specimens took another 20 years, during which he discovered over 4,700 new species of plants and marine life. After Thomson’s death in 1882, the final report, completed by John Murray, reached 50 volumes.

Adrian Glover, a marine researcher at the Museum of Natural History and one of the organizers of the Challenger 150 conference, said: “Essentially, the Challenger expedition was the first interdisciplinary international scientific project.

“Until then, science tended to be done by individuals working in small laboratories. Challenger changed that. It has led to the birth of several interdisciplinary projects that are now the mainstay of research on topics such as climate change.”

At the time, most scientists thought the deep ocean floor was perfectly uniform. It’s a vast, flat expanse filled with soft mud, said Erica Jones., Curator of Navigation and Oceanography at Greenwich National Maritime Museum.

“Challenger has shown that this is absolutely not the case. It has returned amazing charts showing mountains, valleys and vast trenches beneath the waves.” These deepest parts are now known as Challenger Deep. It is Located 10,900 meters below sea level in the Western Pacific Ocean, it is the deepest known point on Earth.

It was also believed that the deep ocean was too dark, too cold, and too pressurized to support life. Challenger changed that perspective, too, Jones added. Challenger Expedition: Exploring the Depths of the Ocean ,It will be published in October.

The Challenger has discovered species ranging from tiny clams to strange fish like stargazing sea devils. Ceratias uranoscopusBut Challenger’s discovery, which could have the biggest impact in the years to come, seemed less dramatic at the time. The expedition dredged the seafloor of the Pacific Ocean and brought up small nuggets of black material covered with faint dents. “These are polymetallic nodules, and we know there are trillions of them scattered on the ocean floor,” Glover said. The first nodule found by the Challenger is on display at the Natural History Museum, he added.

These nodules are rich in manganese, nickel, cobalt and copper and are used in the manufacture of electric vehicles, wind turbines and solar panels to replace carbon-emitting heavy trucks, power plants and climate-destroying factories. Is required. Mining companies say mining should be an international priority. By digging up the nodules from deep inside, they claim, they can stop the scorching heat on the devastated surface of the Earth.

Many marine scientists disagree. “It’s hard to imagine how seafloor mining could be done without destroying species and ecosystems,” said Helen Scales, a British marine biologist.

Along with overfishing and climate change, this issue will be discussed at the conference. The mining company says it should be relatively easy to siphon off the nodules scattered on the ocean floor. Many marine biologists disagree. The effects can be devastating, they say, but they admit that this message is difficult to get across.

“From a scientific standpoint, it’s frightening that it’s very difficult to show the public just how important these environments are to the health of the planet in terms of global nutrient cycling, carbon capture, and maintaining biodiversity. It’s really hard,” said another keynote. The speaker is Katherine Duncan, a marine chemist from the University of Strathclyde.

“Images of rainforest destruction have a visceral effect, but images of the ocean floor do not. Sponges are not as photogenic as orangutans.”

But Duncan argued that the ocean floor has much to offer humanity. Her research includes a process known as pattern-based genome her mining, which she used to study sediment cores extracted from her seafloor 4,000 meters deep off the coast of Antarctica.

The study has already revealed the existence of two new species of marine bacteria. Pseudonocardia abyssalis When Pseudonocardia Oceanimakes antibacterial compounds and may one day be used to create a new range of antibiotics.

Although a relatively new science, the study of marine life has already created dozens of effective drugs.Examples include sea squirt Ectenacidia turbinata Attaches to mangrove roots. It was found to have anticancer properties, leading to the development of Yondelis, a drug for treating sarcoma and ovarian cancer. Similarly, extracts from snails, Conus Magus, has been used in its synthetic form to create Prialt, a chronic pain reliever. Corals, sea slugs, sea worms, and mollusks have also been used to create promising pharmaceuticals.

“What is worrisome is that if we start deep-sea mining without proper management, we risk destroying a valuable source of future medicine,” added Duncan.

Other threats to ocean health include overfishing. Over 150 million tonnes of fish are caught for human consumption each year, and it is currently estimated that one-third of the global fish stock is being exploited in an unsustainable manner. increase.

But the ultimate threat is climate change, Owens said. “Oceans drive so many planetary processes and absorb most of the heat generated by fossil fuel emissions. From what we’ve learned, it’s clear that they can’t take more than that without a significant impact on the planet.”