Download Ocean floor extremophile chemosynthetic microbes

Ocean floor extremophile chemosynthetic microbes provide energy
and carbon to the other organisms in these environments.
KEY POINTS [ edit ]
Recently, there has been the discovery of abundant marine life in the deep sea, especially
around hydrothermal vents.
Hydrothermal vents along the mid-ocean ridge spreading centers act as oases and support unique
biomes and many newmicrobes.
Each area of the seabed has typical features such as common soil composition,
typical topography, salinity of water layers above it, marine life, magnetic direction of rocks, and
sedimenting.
TERMS [ edit ]
biogeochemical cycles
A biogeochemical cycle or substance turnover or cycling of substances is a pathway by which a
chemical element or molecule moves through both biotic (biosphere) and abiotic (lithosphere,
atmosphere, and hydrosphere) compartments of Earth. A cycle is a series of change which comes
back to the starting point and which can be repeated.
plankton
Plankton (singular plankter) are any organisms that live in the water column and are incapable of
swimming against a current. They provide a crucial source of food to many large aquatic
organisms, such as fish and whales.
ecosystems
Communities of living organisms (plants, animals and microbes) in conjunction with the
nonliving components of their environment (things like air, water, and mineral soil), interacting
as a system; linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows.
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Microorganisms, by their omnipresence,
impact the entirebiosphere. Microbial life
plays a primary role in regulating
biogeochemical systems in virtually all of
our planet's environments, including some
of the most extreme, from frozen
environments and acidic lakes, to
hydrothermal vents at the bottom of
deepest oceans, and some of the most
familiar, such as the human small
intestine.
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Microbes, especially bacteria, often engage in symbioticrelationships (either positive or
negative) with other organisms, and these relationships affect the ecosystem. One example of
these fundamental symbioses are chloroplasts, which alloweukaryotes to
conduct photosynthesis. Chloroplasts are considered to be endosymbiotic cyanobacteria, a
group of bacteria that are thought to be the origins of aerobicphotosynthesis.
They are the backbone of all ecosystems, but even more so in the zones where light cannot
approach and therefore photosynthesis cannot be the basic means to collect energy. In such
zones, chemosynthetic microbes provide energy and carbon to the other organisms. Other
microbes are decomposers, with the ability to recycle nutrients from other organisms' waste
poducts. These microbes play a vital role inbiogeochemical cycles. The nitrogen cycle, the
phosphorus cycle and the carbon cycle all depend on microorganisms in one way or another.
For example, nitrogen which makes up 78% of the planet's atmosphere is "indigestible" for
most organisms, and the flow of nitrogen into the biosphere depends on a microbial process
called fixation.
Recently there has been the discovery of abundant marine life in the deep sea, especially
around hydrothermal vents. Large deep sea communities of marine life have been discovered
around black and white smokers – hydrothermal vents emitting typical chemicals toxic to
humans and most of the vertebrates. This marine life receives its energy from both the
extreme temperature difference (typically a drop of 150 degrees) and from chemosynthesis by
bacteria.
Brine pools are another seabed feature, usually connected tocold seeps. Hydrothermal vents
along the mid-ocean ridge spreading centers act as oases, as do their opposites, cold seeps.
Such places support unique biomes and many new microbes and other lifeforms have been
discovered at these locations . The deepest recorded oceanic trench measured to date is the
Mariana Trench, near the Philippines, in the Pacific Ocean at 10,924 m (35,838 ft). At such
depths, water pressure is extreme. There is no sunlight, but some life still exists. A white
flatfish, a shrimp, and a jellyfish were seen by the American crew of the bathyscaphe Trieste
when it dove to the bottom in 1960. Marine life also flourishes around seamounts that rise
from the depths, where fish and other sea life congregate to spawn and feed.
Zooarium chimney provides a habitat for vent biota.
Oceanic ridge with deep sea vent
Oceanic ridge with deep sea vent.