photographist

“I had the chance to work on the abyssal zone, with an Italian team, after studying marine biology. I did my first oceanographic campaign in 2003. It was wonderful to be in the middle of the ocean and see the instruments being taken down to the seabed by little automatic robots controlled from the boat, providing us with an amazing opportunity to see what no one else had ever seen before. They take samples of sediment and other elements, which we then study. The abyssal zone is the layer deep down near the ocean floor, where there is no light – and therefore no photosynthesis. At these depths the pressure is immense, and animals must adapt in order to live in these extremely inhospitable conditions. For the most part, the abyssal zone has yet to be understood. More is known about the surface of the moon than about the vast ocean floor, near inaccessible to humans, and each exploratory mission brings exciting discoveries.

Meiofauna is a microscopic world of animals that live in water. They are between 20 micrometres and one millimetre across. I have coupled my passion for the sea with the study of these organisms that live in the grains of sand of deep-sea environments. Prey for larger animals and impacted by pollutants, they are very important to biodiversity, but remain poorly understood. I am particularly interested in nematodes, which are found from the bottom of the sea to the summits of mountains. It is the dominant group in the marine environment – a highly resistant species of worm which are sometimes found near undersea volcanoes, in very hostile conditions. They must have appeared soon after the beginning of life on earth. With a LabexMer grant, I am studying meiofauna colonisation in the abyssal zone, as part of a team at Ifremer (the French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea), in Brest. Among other things, we are looking at whether there are proteins or antibiotics in their secretions.”

Daniela Zeppilli
Postdoctoral Researcher in Excellence in Marine Science, LabexMer, Ifremer

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