海洋 scientists have 設立する and mapped the world's largest known 深い-sea 珊瑚 暗礁: a hidden ecosystem?概略で the size of?Vermont?teeming with new 種類.
The 発見 was the painstaking 製品 of?23 submersible dives and 31 multibeam sonar mapping 調査するs, 研究員s 明らかにする／漏らすd, all in the service of charting the 大西洋 ocean's 深い-始める，決める Blake 高原.
The 高原's 深い-sea or 冷淡な-water 珊瑚 ecosystem stretches nearly 311 miles from Miami, Florida to Charleston, South Carolina. And it's east-to-west width reaches passed 68 miles in some 地域s.
'権利?on the doorstep' of the US coast,?these ghostly hidden 珊瑚s are 推定する／予想するd to harbor a host of 深い sea creatures not yet known to science, the 研究員s said.
海洋 scientists have 設立する (and mapped) the world's largest known 深い-sea 珊瑚 暗礁: a hidden ecosystem 概略で the size of Vermont teeming with new 種類. Above, a 法外な 減少（する） off into その上の ocean depths that 海洋 研究員s call 'abyssal plains' or 簡単に 'the abyss'
'権利 on the doorstep' of the US coast, these ghostly hidden 珊瑚s are 推定する／予想するd to harbor a host of 深い sea creatures not yet known to science, the 研究員s said
'We knew there would be many 珊瑚 塚s to 地図／計画する here,' the new 熟考する／考慮する's lead author, oceanographer Derek Sowers, told Live Science.
But?― while 海洋 biologists have been aware, since at least the 1960s, that the inky 黒人／ボイコット depths of the Blake 高原 could be home to 深い-sea 珊瑚 ― it was only in recently that Sowers and his team had the 基金ing and the 金物類／武器類 to 適切に 調査する these ocean depths.
READ MORE:?British WWII 軍需品s ship sunk off coast of Egypt has formed an 人工的な 珊瑚 REEF supporting 71 種類 含むing squirrelfish and clownfish, 熟考する／考慮する finds
It was sunk off the coast of Egypt by a German 爆撃機 in 1941, but now the SS Thistlegorm has 設立する new life - as an 人工的な 珊瑚 暗礁. Between 2007 and 2014, divers 記録，記録的な／記録するd the number of 珊瑚 and fish 種類 they could see living in the WWII shipwreck. 研究員s at the University of Bologna analysed the results and 設立する that 71 different varieties were sighted over this period, 含むing Red Sea Clownfish, Soft Tree 珊瑚, 巨大（な） Moray and Squirrelfish.
The 場所／位置's high-濃度／密度 珊瑚 核心, with a thicket of 塚s だいたい 158 miles-long and 26 miles-wide, was both?'impressive and surprising,' Sowers told reporters.
This largest area, which the 研究 team working with the US 国家の 大洋の and Atmospheric 行政 (NOAA)?愛称d the 'Million 塚s,' was まず第一に／本来 made up of a stony 珊瑚 called Desmophyllum pertusum.?
Unlike shallow ocean 珊瑚, which 料金d itself in part 経由で the 光合成 of?zooxanthellae algae, and can be 害（を与える）d by the heat of 気候 change, this?D. pertusum?珊瑚 filter 料金d off floating 生物学の 粒子s, like dead 独房s and microorganisms.?
And, like a pale 洞穴 fish, this 冷淡な-water 珊瑚 is an eerie spectral white.
Sowers 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うs that the 密集して concentrated 'Million 塚s' are 存在 fed by a 安定した stream of nutrients from the 湾 Stream, a 深い warm-water 現在の that flows north along the US eastern seaboard.?
He and his team 推測する that there might be even more ― and 潜在的に larger ― 深い-sea 珊瑚 暗礁s hiding along the 大勝するs of 類似の ocean 現在のs どこかよそで around the globe.
The 十分な expanse of this 珊瑚 網状組織, によれば NOAA, comes to だいたい 6.4 million acres, hundreds of thousands of acres larger than the 明言する／公表する of Vermont, which is about?6.1 million acres, によれば the US 植林学 Service.
'The 熟考する／考慮する 文書s the 大規模な 規模 of the 珊瑚 州,' NOAA said of the new 研究,?published this month in the 定期刊行物 Geomatics.?
'The results,' the administra tion said in a 声明, 'also 最高潮の場面 how different 地域s of the Blake 高原 展示（する） large variations in the 濃度／密度, 高さ, and pattern of 珊瑚 塚 形式.'
While the 深い 珊瑚 塚s cover ground nearly the size of Florida and の近くに to the 日光 明言する／公表する, their 地元の 条件s are nearly ice 冷淡な.?
ありふれた at depths between 656 feet and 3,280 feet, like the Blake 高原, stony?D. pertusum?珊瑚 栄えるs at the 近づく 氷点の 気温 of 39 degrees Fahrenheit.
ありふれた at depths between 656 feet and 3,280 feet, like the Blake 高原, stony?Desmophyllum pertusum 珊瑚 栄えるs at the 近づく 氷点の 気温 of 39 degrees Fahrenheit. Above, an Alfonsino fish swims alone over a thicket of the 深い-sea 珊瑚
Although 深い-sea 珊瑚 暗礁s are understood to be 決定的な hosts for コンビナート／複合体 ecosystems, 供給するing 避難所, food and 'nursery habitat' to crustaceans, fish and other 海洋 life, these dark-dwelling invertebrates are still mostly a mystery to science
Unlike shallow ocean 珊瑚 - which 料金d in part 経由で the 光合成 of algae and can be 害（を与える）d by 気候 change -?D. pertusum 珊瑚 filter-料金d off floating 生物学の 粒子s, 含むing dead 独房s. Like a pale 洞穴 fish, this 冷淡な-water 珊瑚 is an eerie spectral white
Although 深い-sea 珊瑚 暗礁s are understood to be 決定的な hosts for コンビナート／複合体 ecosystems, 供給するing 避難所, food and 'nursery habitat' to crustaceans, fish and other 海洋 life, these dark-dwelling invertebrates are still mostly a mystery.
'This 戦略の multiyear and multi-機関 成果／努力 to systematically 地図／計画する and characterize the 素晴らしい 珊瑚 ecosystem 権利 on the doorstep of the U.S. East Coast is a perfect example of what we can 遂行する when we pool 資源s and 焦点（を合わせる） on 調査するing the だいたい 50% of U.S. 海洋 waters that are still unmapped,' says Derek Sowers, Ph.D.
Sowers, who serves an assistant professor at the University of New Hampshire and lead author of the 熟考する／考慮する, 追加するd: ''だいたい 75% of the 全世界の ocean is still unmapped in any 肉親，親類d of 詳細（に述べる）, but many organizations are working to change that. This 熟考する／考慮する 供給するs a methodology 目的（とする）d at 解釈する／通訳するing mapping data over large ocean 地域s for insights into seafloor habitats and 前進するing 標準化するd approaches to 分類するing them to support ecosystem-based 管理／経営 and 自然保護 成果／努力s.'
