Hydrothermal Vent Communities

1. Hydrothermal Vent Communities

2. Hydrothermal vent discovery-1977

5. Hydrothermal Vents • Cold seawater sinks down through the crust. • O2 and K are removed from the seawater. • Ca, SO4, and Mg are removed from the fluid. • Na, Ca, and K from the crust enter the fluid. • Highest temperatures (350-400 oC), Cu, Zn, Fe, and H2S from the crust dissolve in the fluids. • Hot & acidic fluids with dissolved metals rise up through crust. • The hydrothermal fluids mix with cold, O2-rich seawater. Metals and sulfur combine to form metal-sulfide minerals: MnO2, FeO(OH), …

6. www.pmel.noaa.gov/vents

7. Black & White smokers Silica and Anhidrite Metals & O2 Diffuse flow of water

9. Smoker chimney section

11. Hydrothermal Vent Distribution Pink, western Pacific; green, northeast Pacific; blue, East Pacific Rise; yellow, Azores; red, Mid-Atlantic Ridge; orange, Indian Ocean

13. Age 20-100 years Decades <10 years < 6 months Technique sulfide dating mollusk shells heat loss submersible observations Hydrothermal vent age estimates

14. Hydrothermal energy source H2S + O2 SO4 ++ H+ + ATP • Chemosynthetic (sulfur oxidizing) • Thermophilic Bacteria (up to 120oC) • Hot, anoxic, sulfide rich water mixes with Cold oxygenated water • Hydrothermal Vents as origin of Life?

15. Bacterial mat www.divediscover.whoi.edu/i

16. Bacteria from 120oC http://mollie.berkeley.edu/~volkman/

17. Vent biological communities • BACTERIA (Bacteria and Archea) • 400 morphological invertebrate species • New species every 2 weeks during 25 years! • Evolutionary Origin • Derived from surrounding Deep Sea • Derived from Shallow Water species • Many evolutionary radiations at species level • Many vent taxa originated at other organically enriched environments (cold seeps and whale bones) • Vents as stable refugia from Global extinctions

18. Cold Seeps CH4 + O2 CO2 + H20 +ATP CH4  CH3- + H+ +ATP H2S + O2 SO4 ++ H+ + ATP • Hydrocarbon reservoirs • “methane bubbling” • Continental shelves and Trenches • 200 invertebrate species

20. Whale skeletons & sunken logs H2S + O2 SO4 ++ H+ + ATP • Osteophiles • Potential ‘stepping stones’ for certain invertebrate vent species

21. Invertebrate food sources Food chain based on sulfur-oxidizing bacteria • Symbiosis with Bacteria • Vestimentiferan tube worms • Vent Mussels and vent clams • Ingestion of Bacteria • Grazers (gastropod limpets and snails) • Filter Feeders (vent shrimp, polychaete worms, amphipods, anemones) • Predators • Ventfish, octopus • Scavengers • Crabs

22. Atlantic vents Vent shrimp Indian vents Vent shrimp Anemones Pacific vent species East Pacific vents Vestimentiferan worms Alvinellid polychaetes Oceanic vent Biogeography

23. Vestimentiferan worms

24. http://web.uvic.ca/%7Everenat/364-13.jpg

25. http://www.ifremer.fr/droep/Driftia.html

28. Vent Mussels (Bathymodiolus ) www.divediscover.whoi.edu/i

29. www.divediscover.whoi.edu/i Vent Clams (Calyptogena)

30. Vent Shrimp (Bresiliidae) www.ifremer.fr/

33. Alvinellid worms

34. Vent limpets http://web.uvic.ca/~abates/

35. www.divediscover.whoi.edu/i www.senckenberg.uni-frankfurt.de/ Vent Crabs

36. Ventfish (Thermarces cerberus)

37. www.divediscover.whoi.edu/i

38. Periferic filter feeders

39. Larval dispersal between ventsVent Plumes www.pmel.noaa.gov/vents/PlumeStudies

40. Tubeworm spawning

41. Ocean Crust Age

42. Mid Atlantic Ridge http://faculty.washington.edu/lyn4/images/iceland.jpg

43. East Pacific Rise

44. Spreading rate and Plume incidence www.pmel.noaa.gov/vents/PlumeStudies

45. Fast and Slow spreading ridges VanDover et al. 2002 (Science)

46. Electromagnetic emissions by vents White et al. 2002

47. Light organs in vent organisms www.deepsea.com/

50. Jinks et al. 2003 (SCIENCE)