Trees do not grow in the deep sea, nevertheless sunken
pieces of wood can develop into oases for deep-sea life - at least temporarily
until the wood is fully degraded. A team of Max Planck researchers from Germany
now showed how sunken wood can develop into attractive habitats for a variety
of microorganisms and invertebrates. By using underwater robot technology, they
confirmed their hypothesis that animals from hot and cold seeps would be
attracted to the wood due to the activity of bacteria, which produce hydrogen
sulfide during wood degradation.