In the past 20 years, one of the important advances in the study of life in the deep earth has been the discovery of the oceanic crust biosphere  The volume of the oceanic crust is huge, which is about five times the total volume of the global marine sediments  The scale of microorganisms inhabiting here is huge and cannot be ignored  They have important potential impacts on the global cycle of biogeochemical elements and the weathering of seabed landforms  However, limited by sampling techniques and conditions, the current research and understanding of the oceanic crust lithosphere is still very limited
Previously, limited research has focused almost exclusively on the shoaloids on the surface of the oceanic crust, while the lower oceanic crust, which accounts for nearly two-thirds of the volume of the oceanic crust, is considered to be one of the habitats for deep microbes, but there is still no direct However, there is still a lack of research on the microorganisms that inhabit here and their coping strategies for extreme environments
Deep microbes in the lower oceanic Ccrust and their survival strategies