Organisms of the DEEP OCEAN Hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor support a diversified and vibrant ecosystem. The energy to run the ecosystem does not come from the sun, but from chemical energy released from earth.
Hydrothermal vents (“Black Smokers”)
The PRODUCERS in this food chain are not green plants, but endosymbiotic bacteria living within the tissue of tube worms and clams. Endo= within, inside Symbiotic= working for the benefit of both.
The endosymbiotic bacteria, Arcobacter sulfidicus, uses Chemosynthesis rather than Photosynthesis as their means of trapping and converting energy. Chemosynthesis basically means “energy from chemicals”
Some Deep Sea Consumers Vent Tubeworms, Riftia pachyptila These worms get their energy from the bacteria living in their tissues.
A colony of tube worms and clams
The grappling arm from Alvin takes a sample of tubeworms.
Pompeii worms: They attach themselves to black smokers. This worm is known as the most heat tolerant complex animal. It's able to survive over 150 degrees Celsius. They are pale grey with hairy backs. These hairs are colonies of bacteria. The bacteria feed on mucus from the worms back.
Giant Vent Clams (Calyptogena magnifica) A filter feeder, it also has the bacteria within its body, allowing it to feed and grow very rapidly.
The Vent Crab, Bythograea thermydron Consumer, eats vent worms, as well as vent clams and any fish it can catch. About 5 inches across in size.
A small army of crabs covers the sea floor
A vent crab dining on tube worms.
The Pink Eelpout Fish, Melanostigma pammelas Consumer, eats vent worms and other organisms Size: up to 2 feet in length
Small eelpouts among the tube worms on a vent.
Spiny Spider Crab, Maja brachydactyla Consumer, eats Vent worms, clams, and fish Size, up to 3 feet across
Spider crabs hunting on a bed of mussels and clams.
Lavender Octopus (Graneldone sp.) A predator, it eats crabs, clams, and fish.
Deep Sea Technology and Pioneers -H.M.S Challenger ( ): one of the first true marine expeditions, the Challenger expedition mapped major sea floor features by using a weighted wire to measure depth. -the expedition also discovered more than 4,700 new species.
The deepest dive recorded by a skin diver is 127 meters (417 feet). The deepest dive recorded by a scuba diver is 282 meters (925 feet). Deep Dives Special hardened “Jim Suits” allow divers to reach 600 meters (2000 feet).
Inventor Salim Joseph Peress with His diving suit “Tritonia” (1937). This design led to the development of deep diving suits called “Jim Suits”.
William Beebe and Otis Barton (1934): Descended to a depth of 1000 meters (3,280 feet) in a steel chamber called a bathysphere. -the bathysphere was lowered into the water on a cable, and was not free floating. -messages were passed to the surface using a telephone and a wire.
Auguste Piccard (1948): tested a vessel capable of much deeper dives. -he called his vessel a bathyscaphe, Greek for “Deep Ship” -the FNRS 2 dove to a depth of 1402 m (4600 ft), but was damaged by waves at the surface.
Jacques Piccard (1950): with his father, he designed and built the bathyscaphe Trieste. -Trieste dove to a depth of 3,139 meters (10,300 ft) in trials.
Jacques Piccard and Lt. Donald Walsh (1960): dove in Trieste to a record depth of 10,915 meters (35,810 feet). -dive took place in the Challenger Deep, an area in the Mariana Trench, the deepest point in Earth’s oceans.
Challenger Deep, site of the 1960 Trieste dive.
Alvin (1964) : Operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Alvin made its first dive in Alvin has conducted over 3700 dive missions since it was built, including dives to H.M.S. Titanic in the late 80’s. -Alvin is a DSRV, or Deep Submergence Research Vehicle
Alvins dimensions: 23 feet long, 12 feet high. The crew rides within a 6 foot diameter sphere made of titanium. Alvin is capable of diving to a depth of 4,500 meters (14,764 feet). -a typical dive takes over 8 hours to complete.
The titanium sphere from Alvin removed for maintenance. Note the relative size of the men and the sphere!