page_title: Hydrothermal vent microbial communities
hierarchical_section_title: Hydrothermal vent microbial communities
caption_attribution_description: English: Chemosynthetic microbial mats cover red algae and coral, which are photosynthetic. Hydrothermal vent and coral reef communities are overlapping here at 190 m depth, something none of the scientists on the Submarine Ring of Fire Expedition have witnessed before.
context_page_description: The hydrothermal vent microbial community includes all unicellular organisms that live and reproduce in a chemically distinct area around hydrothermal vents. These include organisms in the microbial mat, free floating cells, or bacteria in an endosymbiotic relationship with animals. Chemolithoautotrophic bacteria derive nutrients and energy from the geological activity at Hydrothermal vents to fix carbon into organic forms. Viruses are also a part of the hydrothermal vent microbial community and their influence on the microbial ecology in these ecosystems is a burgeoning field of research.
  Hydrothermal vents are located where the tectonic plates are moving apart and spreading. This allows water from the ocean to enter into the crust of the earth where it is heated by the magma. The increasing pressure and temperature forces the water back out of these openings, on the way out, the water accumulates dissolved minerals and chemicals from the rocks that it encounters. There are generally three kinds of vents that occur and are all characterized by its temperature and chemical composition. Diffuse vents release clear water typically up to 30 °C.
context_section_description: The hydrothermal vent microbial community includes all unicellular organisms that live and reproduce in a chemically distinct area around hydrothermal vents. These include organisms in the microbial mat, free floating cells, or bacteria in an endosymbiotic relationship with animals. Chemolithoautotrophic bacteria derive nutrients and energy from the geological activity at Hydrothermal vents to fix carbon into organic forms. Viruses are also a part of the hydrothermal vent microbial community and their influence on the microbial ecology in these ecosystems is a burgeoning field of research.
  Hydrothermal vents are located where the tectonic plates are moving apart and spreading. This allows water from the ocean to enter into the crust of the earth where it is heated by the magma. The increasing pressure and temperature forces the water back out of these openings, on the way out, the water accumulates dissolved minerals and chemicals from the rocks that it encounters. There are generally three kinds of vents that occur and are all characterized by its temperature and chemical composition. Diffuse vents release clear water typically up to 30 °C. White smoker vents emit a milky coloured water that are approximately 200-330 °C, black smoker vents generally release water hotter than the others between 300-400 °C. The waters from black smokers are darkened by the precipitates of sulfide that are accumulated. Due to there not being any sunlight at these ocean depths, energy is provided by chemosynthesis where symbiotic bacteria and archaea form the bottom of the food chain and are able to support a variety of organisms such as Riftia pachyptila and Alvinella pompejana. These organisms utilize this symbiotic relationship in order to utilize and obtain the chemical energy that is released at these hydrothermal vent areas.
caption: Chemosynthetic microbial mats at the junction between hydrothermal vent and coral reef communities
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "SONY", "Image Model": "CYBERSHOT", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop 7.0", "Image DateTime": "2004:05:12 16:43:29", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "252", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "694", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8557", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/60", "EXIF FNumber": "11/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0210", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2004:04:05 00:33:02", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2004:04:05 00:33:02", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "33/16", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "20", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3000", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2250", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed"}