RESEARCH ADVANCES IN HYDROTHERMAL VENT MICROBIAL COMMUNITIES AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE FOR GEOLOGY

Hydrothermal communities in deep seafloor live around Black Smoker sites. The primary producers of hydrothermal ecosystems are thermophiles and archaea. Bacteria convert chemicals (from the sulfur-rich fluid spewed out of vents) to energy, in a process called chemosynthesis. They get energy depending on the oxidation of sulfides (H2S, FeS2) and methane and the reduction of carbon dioxide, instead of photosynthesis. There are two kinds of relationship between thermophiles and other animals. Other animals eat thermophiles or thermophiles exist in a symbiotic relationship with vent animals. Thermophiles not only depend on the deep-sea hydrothermal activities, but also play an important role of hydrothermal mineralization. The source of them is likely to be subsurface biosphere. Black smokers could be “windows to a deep biosphere”, which has crucial implication for the research of thermophiles and the understanding of astrobiology and the origin of life.