A NASA-sponsored expedition has made a startling discovery of diverse biological plant life at the depths of the Arctic Ocean, which is raising potential concerns for marine life.

The findings, which are being compared to 'finding a rainforest in the middle of a desert,' include waters richer in microscopic marine plants than any other ocean region on Earth. They were collected over a period of two years from 2010-2011 by a NASA-led oceanographic expedition.

Impacts of Climate on EcoSystems and Chemistry of the Arctic Pacific Environment, or ICESCAPE, explored the Arctic Ocean in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas along Alaska's western and northern coasts on board a U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker ship. The expedition used optical technologies to look for impacts of environmental change in the Arctic region.

'Part of NASA's mission is pioneering scientific discovery, and this is like finding the Amazon rainforest in the middle of the Mojave Desert,' explained Paula Bontempi, NASA's ocean biology and biogeochemistry program manager. 'We embarked on ICESCAPE to validate our satellite ocean-observing data in an area of the Earth that is very difficult to get to. We wound up making a discovery that hopefully will help researchers and resource managers better understand the Arctic.'

The biological life discovered includes phytoplankton, which are microscopic plants at the base of the m.