ENVS 2004 Lecture 7

Hydrothermal vents and vent communities

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Questions from the last lecture…
• How old do deep
sea fishes get?

• As energy is
limited, often
deep sea fishes
are slow growing,
long-lived
• Often, they are
considered “K-
selected species”
Questions from the last lecture…
• If energy is
limiting, then
what is the big
squid thing?
Giant squid (Architeuthidae spp.)
• Max. length
measured
~13m
• Long tentacles
• Living footage
first recorded
off Japan coast
in 2012
Colossal squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni)
• The largest
squid species
known by
mass (495 kg
in 2007
specimen
collected off
New Zealand)
Abyssal gigantism
• Many deep sea creatures (especially invertebrates) are larger
compared to their shallow water counter parts

Giant isopod Japanese spider crab

Bathynomus giganteus
 Abyssal gigantism
• Why?
• Bergmann's rule
• Generally speaking, it refers to increase in body size for
members of a taxonomic clade in higher latitude
• when originally formulating the rule, the argument was
that larger animals have a lower surface area to volume
ratio than smaller animals, so they radiate less body heat
per unit of mass, and therefore stay warmer in cold
climates. Warmer climates impose the opposite problem:
body heat generated by metabolism needs to be dissipated
quickly rather than stored within.
• For marine crustaceans, growth is indeterminate. Cold
temperature in the deep increase cell size and life span,
hence, maximum size.
Hydrothermal Vents and Vent Communities

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 Schematic of a Hydrothermal Vent
Bottom current
Sulphides, minerals and hot water

Vent chimney Sedimentation of

(cooled) precipitated
Seawater seeps down minerals
cracks in crust
Convection

Mineral-rich hot
water
Heated water
dissolves minerals

350°C
isotherm Basalt rock
Magma

All vent fauna depend on the primary productivity of chemoautotrophic

bacteria, which oxidize sulphides as their energy source and form the
base of vent food webs.
• Vent communities are
totally independent of
surface production.
• They are high-density,
high-productivity
“oases” of megafaunal
assemblages in very
localized patches
around the vent
chimneys.
• E.g. Giant tubeworm,
Riftia pachyptila

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‘Blind’ vent shrimps, Rimicaris, have
special dorsal organs that sense
heat from the vents to stay close to
the vents.
They feed on bacterial mats on the
chimneys.

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 The ‘scaly-foot gastropod’, or magneto snail
(Chrysomalion squamiferum), discovered from Indian
Ocean hydrothermal vents in 2001, at depths of 2400 –
2800 m.
It has a unique shell with an outer layer consisting of
iron suphide, and the foot is armoured at the sides with
iron scales.

The blind ‘yeti crab’ (Kiwa hirsuta) was

discovered in 2005 from Pacific Ocean
hydrothermal vents.
The long setae on its arms may have a
sensory function, or help it grow its own
food – bacteria!
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UNH

• Hydrothermal vent communities

are unstable, ephemeral or short-
lived environments – may last a
few years to a few decades only.

Extinct chimneys

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The Lost City

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Serpentinization (hydration of olivine)

Slide courtesy: Dr. Rika Anderson

The Lost City - Serpentinization
• Hydrothermal activity at Lost City is driven by chemical reactions between
seawater and mantle rocks that make up the underlying basement, not by
magma-heating.
• Because of faulting, mantle rocks are now exposed at or near the seafloor and
they are out of equilibrium with their surroundings. These rocks contain large
amounts of the mineral olivine (a Mg-Fe silicate) which reacts with seawater at
temperatures below 400°C and forms serpentine minerals (hydrous Mg-silicates)
and magnetite.
• This process, referred to as serpentinization, is exothermic and is capable of
raising the rock temperature by about 260°C. It is this heat source that helps drive
the Lost City hydrothermal system.
• Basic fluids pH 9-11 (CaCO3 precipitate).
• 30,000 years old!
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Origins of Life on Earth?

Alkaline hydrothermal vents at the Lost City in the Atlantic Ocean, formed by
the non-volcanic process of serpentinization, in which seawater reacts with
minerals derived from the upper mantle, such as olivine (at 40-100°C), to form
serpentine in an exothermic reaction that also produces hydrocarbons.
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Cold Seeps

HBOI
Cold seeps were first discovered in the 1980s in Monterey
Canyon (off California) at 3,200 m depth.
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• Cold seeps are sites where fluids are slowly
released from the seabed. These seepages are
rich in methane and sulphide compounds.
• The fluids are at the same temperature as
surrounding seawater, but termed “cold seeps” to
distinguish them from hydrothermal vents.
• Cold seeps may be more widespread than vents,
occur in passive and active continental margins.
• Like hydrothermal vents, cold seeps support
unique fauna, many of which are endemic
species. The exact composition of their biological
community depends on the chemicals, e.g.
hydrogen sulphide, methane, iron, manganese
and silica, found in the cold-seep fluid.
Cold seep tubeworm, Lamellibrachia
 NOAA
“Brine Pool” Cold Seep
• The hypersaline “Brine Pool” is a cold seep
community from the Gulf of Mexico.
• It is based on methane as energy source 
primary producers are methanotrophic
bacteria.
• They are form due to salt tectonics.
• The brine pool edge is dominated by
mussels (Bathymodiolus).

The Brine Pool is at 700 m depth.

The brine is 4x saltier than seawater and
supersaturated with methane
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Brine Pool, Gulf of mexico 23
Blue Planet 2 – Brine Pool

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 Methane-based Cold Seep Organisms

• Methane probably originates from organisms that had long

died and decomposed, and were buried in the sediment.
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 Sulphide-based Cold
Seep Organisms

• Vestimentiferan tubeworms and vesicomyid clams also contain

endosymbiotic bacteria.
• They absorb sulphides from the sediment. These may deplete sulphides
and lower toxicity of such areas for other animals.
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Cold seep tubeworms, Lamellibrachia (have ‘roots’ to absorb sulphides)

Vesicomyid clams

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 Spider crab Batfish

The common thread between both hydrothermal

vent and cold seep communities is the presence of a
reduced compound (most commonly hydrogen
sulfide or methane). The highly productive
ecosystems of vents and seeps stem from the large
influx of these reduced chemicals from below the
earths crust.

Shark 28
• Hydrocarbon-rich fluids percolate from buried sediments for many,
many years.
• Thus allow for development of stable, slow-growing, long-lived
communities, e.g. Lamellibrachia (estimated up to 200-250 years old)
Cold seeps are therefore more geologically stable and longer-lived than
hydrothermal vents
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Dispersal of Vent Organisms
Mystery:

MontereyBaywhalewatch
how do vent organisms disperse?

• 1987: Alvin discovered a whale-fall

skeleton at 1240 m off Southern Gray whale killed by orcas
California.
• Chemoautotrophic bacteria and vent-
associated organisms were found on
the whale bones and in surrounding
sediments.

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Whalefall in the Pacific (Craig Smith)
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 MBARI

• Estimates that dead whale bodies may be spaced one per 25 km over the
North Pacific seafloor.
• Craig Smith (1992) proposed the theory that these whale-falls skeletons
acted as “stepping stones” for the dispersal of vent organisms – “Stepping
stone hypothesis”.
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 Chemistry of Decomposing Whale Bones

Sulphur-oxidising anaerobic bacteria found inside whale-fall bones convert

lipids into sulphides. These provide a source of sulphide for the same
chemoautotrophic bacteria and other organisms that are also found in
vent communities. 33
Osedax – a bone-eating worm

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 • Whale-fall communities share many species with other
chemoautosynthetic seafloor communities, e.g. hydrothermal
vents (10 spp.) and cold seeps (19 spp.).
• Planktonic larvae of vent organisms may settle, grow and reproduce
on whale-falls.
• A large whale-fall may support such organisms for 100 years.
• Their larvae may later colonize new vents.
• These whale-falls act as ‘stepping stones’ thus allowing dispersal of
vent organisms over the vast distances between vent systems.
• There used to be more whales in the past, until whaling severely
depleted their numbers.

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 Whale-fall, North Pacific
Microbes (orange) decompose the
whale tissue and bones, producing
hydrogen sulfide nutrients that sustain
populations of bacteria, small clams
and polychaetes.

Craig R. Smith

A 35 tonne, 13 m gray whale- fall

after 18 months with scavenging
hagfish.
Craig R. Smith and Amy Baco

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