The deepest place in the ocean is full of microscopic life, a study suggests.
An international team of scientists found that the bottom of the Mariana Trench, which is almost 11 km (7 miles) down in the Pacific Ocean, had high levels of microbial activity.
The research is published in the journal Nature Geoscience.
The underwater canyon was once considered a hostile environment for life to exist.
But this study adds to a growing body of evidence that a number of beings can handle the temperatures near freezing, huge pressure and complete darkness.
Dr. Robert Turnewitsch, one of the authors of the paper from the Scottish Association for Marine Science, said: "the deepest parts of the deep sea are definitely not dead zones."
Carbon Sink
In 2010 the scientists sent an unmanned underwater vehicle down into the huge underwater canyon, where it collected samples of the dark sediment that cakes the seabed.
An analysis of the level of oxygen in the sample revealed the presence of a large number of microbes.
Dr. Turnewitsch stated: "these microbes, they all in a festive atmosphere as we do. And this oxygen demand is an indirect measurement of the activity of the community. "
Surprisingly, these were primitive, single-cell organisms twice as active at the bottom of the trough than them on a nearby site of 6 km deep (four miles were).
They were feasting on an abundant supply of dead plants and creatures that had drifted down from the sea surface, the decomposing matter getting caught in the steep walls of the trough.
"The amount of food down there, and also the relative freshness of the material is surprisingly high-it seems surprisingly nutritious," said Dr. Turnewitsch.
The level of material found at the bottom of the trough was so high that it suggests the Mariana Trench-which in an area of the ocean known as the Hadal zone-can play an important role in the carbon cycle and therefore in regulating the planet's climate.
Dr. Richard Turnewitsch said: "the fact that large amounts of organic matter that contain accumulate carbon and are focused in these trenches also means they play an important role in removing carbon from the Ocean and the overlying atmosphere.
"The Hadal trenches can play an increasingly important role in the global carbon cycle marine than previously thought."
Deepest dive
Further insight into the Mariana Trench has recently provided by Hollywood director James Cameron.
In 2012 he made the dive down in a one-one-man-submarine, becoming the first person to have visited this deep place for 50 years.
Interview with the BBC straight after his solo dive, he said that the word of the trough a strange and barren terrain was.
He recently some of the first scientific results of his dive at the meeting of the American Geophysical Union fall 2012.
Working with scientists from The Scripps Institute, the team found giant amoeba and shrimp-like creatures called amphipods.
Images of his dive will be released as 3D National Geographic documentary.
Images of the deepest place of the Earth-courtesy National Geographic
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