1. Hydrothermal vents: Life in the hot, deep sea
Biology 029
Hydrothermal vents:
Life in the hot, deep sea

2. Pre-1977 view of life

3. Pre-1977 view of life in the oceans

4. Suspicion that there were hydrothermal vents…
‘Hot’ zones from towed probes
First visited by DSV ALVIN in 1977

6. Black Smokers

8. 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

9. 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

11. 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

12. Weird minerals make for weird building blocks…

13. Why don’t they get cooked?
Pompeii worm
Vent shrimp

14. Alvinella pompejana
Cary et al Nature

15. Rimicaris exoculata Dies at about 37 °C
Uses behavioural avoidance to hover around the edges of the vent environment

16. Rimicaris exoculata avoids being cooked…