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The "carbon bombs" found their way into their molecules through nuclear tests carried out in the 1950s and 1960s – and were found miles away in the ocean, where these creatures live. According to the study's authors, the results show how quickly human pollution can enter the ocean's food chain and reach the depths of the ocean.
This is a disturbing discovery that shows how human actions can harm the planet.
"We were not expecting carbon levels such as 14 (radioactive carbon)," said CNN's Sun Weidong, a professor of marine geology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Qingdao, China. "This means that the ocean has been polluted by human activities."
How is radioactive carbon found in the ocean?
During the Cold War nuclear tests, the radioactive carbon in the atmosphere had doubled. The neutrons released into the bombs reacted with nitrogen from the air, creating a radioactive carbon, or carbon 14.
When the nuclear tests came to an end, the levels of radioactive carbon decreased. But it was already too late. The "carbon bomb" fell from the atmosphere to the surface of the ocean. Marine animals have been eating things in the ocean for decades and scientists have seen an increase in carbon levels 14 since the bomb tests.
Researchers from China and the United States have used "trapped coal" to locate organic material in organisms living in the deepest parts of the ocean. They studied crustaceans living in hadal trenches, located at an altitude of 6,000 to 11,000 meters (20,000 to 36,000 feet) below the surface of the ocean.
The crustaceans studied came from three trenches located in the west of the Pacific Ocean. The conditions in these trenches are difficult – the creatures living there must adapt to extreme cold, high pressures and lack of light and nutrients. The crustaceans feed and feed on dead organisms that fall to the bottom of the ocean.
When the researchers made a carbon carbon dating of the crustaceans, they found that the carbon-14 levels in their muscle tissues were much higher than the carbon levels naturally present in the deep oceans. Carbon 14 is found in almost all living things and is used to date the relative age of organisms in a process called carbon dating.
Carbon has bottomed out faster than expected
Normally, it would take about 1,000 years to the ocean to circulate the carbon of the bomb in the deep sea. However, the ocean food chain carried radioactive carbon faster than predicted by researchers.
Researchers have discovered that shellfish in these trenches live four times longer and grow larger than other crustaceans found in shallower waters. They also have a low tissue turnover rate. These creatures from the depths are over 10 years old and 3.6 inches long. Crustaceans in shallow waters live for less than two years and reach about 0.8 inches.
The researchers explained that creatures were able to become so large and live as long as such harsh conditions in the depths of the ocean.
Living for so long, the amount of radioactive carbon has had time to accumulate in the body of crustaceans, according to the study.
"It is primarily an indication that we have a major influence in the deepest part of the ocean," Sun said. "I think we have to be careful that all human activity affects the whole world."
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