Biology 029Hydrothermal vents:
Life in the hot, deep sea
Pre-1977 view of life
Pre-1977 view of life in the oceans
Suspicion that there were hydrothermal vents… ‘Hot’ zones from towed probesFirst visited by DSV ALVIN in
1977
Black Smokers
Characteristics of black smokers
Water leaves at 273 °CRapidly cools to ambientLeaves a zone at about 20 °C
‘Black smoke’ – plume of precipitates
Where does the energy come from?Chemosynthesis
(Chemoautotrophy) Bacteria utilise the chemical energy
in the metal sulfides to reduce carbon into forms useable to organisms
The trophosome is packed with chemosynthetic bacteria
Tentacles harvest metal sulfides, CO2 and O2 from the water
Blood contains both hemoglobin (carries oxygen) and a molecule to carry sulfides
The bacteria provide food to the tubeworm
Weird minerals make for weird building blocks…
Why don’t they get cooked?Pompeii worm Vent shrimp
Alvinella pompejana
Cary et al. 1998 Nature
Dies at about 37 °C Uses behavioural
avoidance to hover around the edges of the vent environment
Rimicaris exoculata
Rimicaris exoculata avoids being cooked…
http://www.divediscover.whoi.edu/ventcd/
http://www.whoi.edu/institutes/doei/viewTopic.do?o=read&id=119
