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Hydrothermal vent fields and chemosynthetic biota on the world's deepest seafloor spreading centre.

ABSTRACT: The Mid-Cayman spreading centre is an ultraslow-spreading ridge in the Caribbean Sea. Its extreme depth and geographic isolation from other mid-ocean ridges offer insights into the effects of pressure on hydrothermal venting, and the biogeography of vent fauna. Here we report the discovery of two hydrothermal vent fields on the Mid-Cayman spreading centre. The Von Damm Vent Field is located on the upper slopes of an oceanic core complex at a depth of 2,300?m. High-temperature venting in this off-axis setting suggests that the global incidence of vent fields may be underestimated. At a depth of 4,960?m on the Mid-Cayman spreading centre axis, the Beebe Vent Field emits copper-enriched fluids and a buoyant plume that rises 1,100?m, consistent with >400?°C venting from the world's deepest known hydrothermal system. At both sites, a new morphospecies of alvinocaridid shrimp dominates faunal assemblages, which exhibit similarities to those of Mid-Atlantic vents.

SUBMITTER: Connelly DP

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3274706 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Hydrothermal vent fields and chemosynthetic biota on the world's deepest seafloor spreading centre.

Connelly Douglas P DP Copley Jonathan T JT Murton Bramley J BJ Stansfield Kate K Tyler Paul A PA German Christopher R CR Van Dover Cindy L CL Amon Diva D Furlong Maaten M Grindlay Nancy N Hayman Nicholas N Hühnerbach Veit V Judge Maria M Le Bas Tim T McPhail Stephen S Meier Alexandra A Nakamura Ko-Ichi K Nye Verity V Pebody Miles M Pedersen Rolf B RB Plouviez Sophie S Sands Carla C Searle Roger C RC Stevenson Peter P Taws Sarah S Wilcox Sally S

Nature communications 20120110

The Mid-Cayman spreading centre is an ultraslow-spreading ridge in the Caribbean Sea. Its extreme depth and geographic isolation from other mid-ocean ridges offer insights into the effects of pressure on hydrothermal venting, and the biogeography of vent fauna. Here we report the discovery of two hydrothermal vent fields on the Mid-Cayman spreading centre. The Von Damm Vent Field is located on the upper slopes of an oceanic core complex at a depth of 2,300 m. High-temperature venting in this off ...[more]

PMID: 22233630

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Project description:Depressurization and sample processing delays may impact the outcome of shipboard microbial incubations of samples collected from the deep sea. To address this knowledge gap, we developed a remotely operated vehicle (ROV)-powered incubator instrument to carry out and compare results from in situ and shipboard RNA stable isotope probing (RNA-SIP) experiments to identify the key chemolithoautotrophic microbes and metabolisms in diffuse, low-temperature venting fluids from Axial Seamount. All the incubations showed microbial uptake of labeled bicarbonate primarily by thermophilic autotrophic Epsilonbacteraeota that oxidized hydrogen coupled with nitrate reduction. However, the in situ seafloor incubations showed higher abundances of transcripts annotated for aerobic processes, suggesting that oxygen was lost from the hydrothermal fluid samples prior to shipboard analysis. Furthermore, transcripts for thermal stress proteins such as heat shock chaperones and proteases were significantly more abundant in the shipboard incubations, suggesting that depressurization induced thermal stress in the metabolically active microbes in these incubations. Together, the results indicate that while the autotrophic microbial communities in the shipboard and seafloor experiments behaved similarly, there were distinct differences that provide new insight into the activities of natural microbial assemblages under nearly native conditions in the ocean.IMPORTANCE Diverse microbial communities drive biogeochemical cycles in Earth's ocean, yet studying these organisms and processes is often limited by technological capabilities, especially in the deep ocean. In this study, we used a novel marine microbial incubator instrument capable of in situ experimentation to investigate microbial primary producers at deep-sea hydrothermal vents. We carried out identical stable isotope probing experiments coupled to RNA sequencing both on the seafloor and on the ship to examine thermophilic, microbial autotrophs in venting fluids from an active submarine volcano. Our results indicate that microbial communities were significantly impacted by the effects of depressurization and sample processing delays, with shipboard microbial communities being more stressed than seafloor incubations. Differences in metabolism were also apparent and are likely linked to the chemistry of the fluid at the beginning of the experiment. Microbial experimentation in the natural habitat provides new insights into understanding microbial activities in the ocean.

Dataset Information

Hydrothermal vent fields and chemosynthetic biota on the world's deepest seafloor spreading centre.

Publications

Hydrothermal vent fields and chemosynthetic biota on the world's deepest seafloor spreading centre.

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