Hydrothermal Vents

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Hydrothermal vents are among the most diverse and biologically active ecosystems of the ocean. At these locations, seawater penetrates through the cracks in the crust until it reaches hot heated magma rock. The seawater is heated and converted into hydrothermal fluid. These hydrothermal fluids then rapidly diffuse through the seafloor as black jets of superheated fluid or water rising from cracks in the deep ocean seafloor. This interaction between superheated hot hydrothermal fluid from the crust and seawater supports microbial life that is independent of photosynthesis and is detached from the photosynthetic biosphere. “This microbial life alters the chemistry of hydrothermal vent habitats and provides nourishment for the vent fauna” (Holden 206). …show more content…

Around hydrothermal vents the growth rate of microbes is high due to the chemical energy present in the hydrothermal fluids. The energy found in the hydrothermal fluids is used by chemoautotrophic bacteria in the same way that photoautotrophic organisms in the photosynthetic biosphere use energy from the sun. The chemicals that constitute hydrothermal fluids are electron-rich. The electron-rich hydrothermal fluids react by transferring their electrons to oxygen-rich compounds. The oxidation reaction allows energy to be released and available for the microbes to convert into biological energy to fuel biological processes. Many of the chemoautotrophic bacteria present in hydrothermal vent ecosystems have differentiated to be unique in the usage of a specific electron donor. As a result, microbial ecosystems at hydrothermal vents are named according to the electron donor that sustains that ecosystem (Tebo

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