The deep ocean is the last great wilderness on Earth. Vast and largely unexplored, the CCZ alone covers 1.7 million square miles of abyssal plain. At its chilling depths you’ll find crushing pressure, zero sunlight, and a sweeping array of life living amongst some of the most coveted minerals on Earth. This week we bring you the hard science of the ocean floor. Host Elisa is joined by marine ecologist Alex Rogers to discuss the biodiversity of the CCZ and its role in our global ecosystem. How biodiverse is the deep ocean? Why is deep sea life so important for carbon sequestration? And with so much still unknown, what do we risk in exploiting the deep sea for its mineral resources?
Professor Alex David Rogers is the Science Director at Rev Ocean, and a Visiting Professor in the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford.