Chemosynthesic Life Sea Floor

Cavanaugh later managed to confirm that this was indeed the method by which the worms could thrive and is generally credited with the discovery of.

Chemosynthesic life sea floor.

Chemosynthesis occurs around hydrothermal vents and methane seeps in the deep sea where sunlight is absent. At about the same time then graduate student colleen cavanaugh proposed chemosynthetic bacteria that oxidize sulfides or elemental sulfur as a mechanism by which tube worms could survive near hydrothermal vents. The diversity of animals at deep sea hydrothermal vents is breathtaking. The atlantic equatorial belt aeb the new zealand region the arctic and antarctic and the se pacific.

The bacteria can turn chemicals like hydrogen sulfide and methane into food. During chemosynthesis bacteria living on the sea floor or within animals use energy stored in the chemical bonds of hydrogen sulfide and methane to make glucose from water and carbon dioxide dissolved in sea water. Some examples of chemosynthesis follow. Click for more detail.

Chemosynthesis occurs in environments where sunlight is not able to penetrate such as in hydrothermal vents at the bottom of the ocean coastal sediments volcanoes water in caves cold seeps in the ocean floor terrestrial hot springs sunken ships and within the decayed bodies of whales among many others. This way of producing food is called chemosynthesis because the bacteria make food from chemicals not light. In shallower seafloor regions on continental margins for example naturally created methane and hydrogen sulfide seep from the seafloor. Deep sea seeps and sanctuaries into this complex equation scientists have added new variables by discovering other deep sea habitats that foster chemosynthetic life.

The chess project of the census of marine life 2002 2010 helped foster internationally coordinated studies worldwide focusing on exploration for and characterization of new deep sea chemosynthetic ecosystem sites. In deep sea hot hydrothermal vents entire ecosystems are supported by the oxidation of geothermal sulfides by chemosynthetic bacteria some of which are endosymbionts in invertebrates stewart et al. The hot springs and strange creatures were discovered by alvin the world s first deep sea submersible in 1977 at the galapagos rift. This work has advanced our understanding of the nature and factors controlling the biogeography and biodiversity of these ecosystems in four geographic locations.

Life inside earth the microorganisms living in the seafloor are diverse consuming hydrogen carbon phosphorus and other elements but for this study researchers focused on methane producing and. Various metals and minerals are absorbed by the water when it enters the earth s crust which are used by chemosynthetic bacteria to make organic compounds.