Recently discovered new biospheric pelocontour function in the Black Sea reductive bathyal zone

Abstract

Two remarkable scientific events happened recently (Zaitsev, Polikarpov, Egorov et al., 2007, 2008) in the field of the newly developed deep-sea ecology and molismology of the hydrogen sulphide pelocontour in the Black Sea bathyal zone: - discovery (in 2007) of viable spores of oxybionts in this aggressive zone against openly living oxybionts – those organisms which normally inhabit all three biocycles of the biosphere – the land, the fresh waters and the marine environment as well as - Determination (in 2008) of the safe sojourn duration of the oxybionts’ spores by radioisotope dating in layers of the studied pelocontour sediment. Generalization and discussion of these events are presented.