“We need to think much bigger when it comes to life in the ocean”
Her research takes marine biologist Monika Bright of the University of Vienna to extreme habitats in the deep sea – to hydrothermal vents in volcanic craters, where bizarre tube worms without mouths or intestines live in symbiosis with sulfur-oxidizing bacteria. In 2023, the researcher and her team were the first to discover a diverse animal world beneath the ocean floor that interacts with the fauna living above it, demonstrating that these unique ecosystems extend much further than previously assumed.
