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Biology 029 Hydrothermal 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 probes First visited by DSV ALVIN in 1977 Black Smokers Characteristics of black smokers ‘Black smoke’ – plume of precipitates Water leaves at 273 °C Rapidly cools to ambient Leaves a zone at about 20 °C 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 Tentacles harvest metal sulfides, CO2 and O2 from the water Blood contains both hemoglobin (carries oxygen) and a molecule to carry sulfides The trophosome is packed with chemosynthetic bacteria 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 Rimicaris exoculata Dies at about 37 °C Uses behavioural avoidance to hover around the edges of the vent environment Rimicaris exoculata avoids being cooked… http://www.divediscover.whoi.e du/ventcd/ http://www.whoi.edu/institutes /doei/viewTopic.do?o=read&id= 119
