Chemoautotrophy at Deep-Sea Vents: Past, Present, and Future

Sievert, Stefan M.; Vetriani, Costantino

doi:10.5670/oceanog.2012.21

Cited by 154 publications

(176 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…On the EPR, within 5 years of each eruption, rapid and sequential colonizations were observed from white bacterial mats, to the small siboglinid tubeworm Tevnia jerichonana, to the giant tubeworm Riftia pachyptila, and to the mussel Bathymodiolus thermophilus (Shank et al, 1998;Fornari et al, 2012). The transition from Tevnia to Riftia appears to correspond to waning vent fluid flux but may also be influenced by biogenic settlement cues (Mullineaux et al, 2000;Sievert and Vetriani, 2012). The mussels are slower to get established, but once they reach adult size and high densities, may reduce the hydrogen sulfide available for tubeworms.…”

Section: Regional and Local Influences On Successionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the Ecology of Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vents in a Metacommunity Framework

et al. 2018

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Species inhabiting deep-sea hydrothermal vents are strongly influenced by the geological setting, as it provides the chemical-rich fluids supporting the food web, creates the patchwork of seafloor habitat, and generates catastrophic disturbances that can eradicate entire communities. The patches of vent habitat host a network of communities (a metacommunity) connected by dispersal of planktonic larvae. The dynamics of the metacommunity are influenced not only by birth rates, death rates and interactions of populations at the local site, but also by regional influences on dispersal from different sites. The connections to other communities provide a mechanism for dynamics at a local site to affect features of the regional biota. In this paper, we explore the challenges and potential benefits of applying metacommunity theory to vent communities, with a particular focus on effects of disturbance. We synthesize field observations to inform models and identify data gaps that need to be addressed to answer key questions including: (1) what is the influence of the magnitude and rate of disturbance on ecological attributes, such as time to extinction or resilience in a metacommunity; (2) what interactions between local and regional processes control species diversity, and (3) which communities are "hot spots" of key ecological significance. We conclude by assessing our ability to evaluate resilience of vent metacommunities to human disturbance (e.g., deep-sea mining). Although the resilience of a few highly disturbed vent systems in the eastern Pacific has been quantified, these values cannot be generalized to remote locales in the western Pacific or mid Atlantic where disturbance rates are different and information on local controls is missing.

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Section: Regional and Local Influences On Successionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the Ecology of Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vents in a Metacommunity Framework

et al. 2018

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“…This work was soon followed by many other pure cultures (Nakagawa and Takai, 2008;Sievert and Vetriani, 2012, and references therein), and represented a major breakthrough as it permitted the genetic and physiological characterization of these organisms. More recently, meta-'omics' studies have shown that the same chemosynthetic pathways described in pure cultures are active in situ (Urich et al, 2014;Fortunato and Huber, 2016).…”

Section: The Discovery Of Chemoautotrophicmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, most vent isolates to date appear to be obligate autotrophs, with the exception of the thermophilic genus Nautilia. For N. profundicola and N. lithotrophica, formate is used as an electron donor, N. nitratireducens can use complex organics (Sievert and Vetriani, 2012, and references therein), and natural populations of Nautilia can assimilate acetate (Winkel et al, 2014). Mesophilic, heterotrophic Epsilonproteobacteria have not yet been isolated from vent systems.…”

Section: 3mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Within the lineage Epsilonproteobacteria, the Nautiliales can be thought of as deep-branching, typically thermophilic organisms, whereas the Campylobacterales are shallower-branching mesophiles. Here, I define the order Nautiliales as in the SILVA taxonomy of Quast et al (2013), i.e., including the genera Caminibacter, Cetia, Lebetimonas, Nautilia, Nitratifractor, Nitratiruptor and Thioreductor (Sievert and Vetriani, 2012;Grosche et al, 2015). For unknown reasons, Hydrogenimonas appears as a separate group in the SILVA taxonomy, but here I treat it as part of the Nautiliales.…”

Section: 3mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, fumarate reduction is essentially indistinguishable from other respiratory pathways found in Epsilonproteobacteria. For some Epsilonproteobacteria, electron acceptors are very diverse; Sulfurospirillum multivorans uses up to 13 distinct compounds as electron acceptors including chlorinated organics (Goris et al, 2014 (Sievert and Vetriani, 2012).…”

Section: 3mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Productivity, metabolism and physiology of free-living chemoautotrophic Epsilonproteobacteria

McNichol¹

2016

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Chemoautotrophic ecosystems at deep-sea hydrothermal vents were discovered in 1977, but not until 1995 were free-living autotrophic Epsilonproteobacteria identified as important microbial community members. Because the deep-sea is food-starved, the autotrophic metabolism of hydrothermal vent Epsilonproteobacteria may be very important for deep-sea consumers. However, quantifying their metabolic activities in situ has remained difficult, and biochemical mechanisms underlying their autotrophic physiology are poorly described. To gain insight into environmental processes, an approach was developed for incubations of microbes at in situ pressure and temperature (25 MPa, 24 o C) with various combinations of electron donors/acceptors (H 2 , O 2 and NO 3 -and 13 HCO 3 -) as a tracer to track carbon fixation. During short (18-24 h) incubations of low-temperature vent fluids from Crab Spa (9 o N East Pacific Rise), the concentration of electron donors/acceptors and cell numbers were monitored to quantify microbial processes. Measured rates were generally higher than previous studies, and the stoichiometry of microbially-catalyzed redox reactions revealed new insights into sulfur and nitrogen cycling. Single-cell, taxonomically-resolved tracer incorporation showed Epsilonproteobacteria dominated carbon fixation, and their growth efficiency was calculated based on electron acceptor consumption. Using these data, in situ primary productivity, microbial standing stock, and average biomass residence time of the deep-sea vent subseafloor biosphere were estimated. Finally, the population structures of the most abundant genera Sulfurimonas and Thioreductor were shown to be strongly influenced by pO 2 and temperature respectively, providing a mechanism for niche differentiation in situ. To gain insights into the core biochemical reactions underlying autotrophy in Epsilonprotebacteria, a theoretical metabolic model of Sulfurimonas denitrificans was developed. Validated iteratively by comparing in silico yields with data from chemostat experiments, the model generated hypotheses explaining critical, yet so far unresolved reactions supporting chemoautotrophy in Epsilonproteobacteria. For example, it provides insight into how energy is conserved during sulfur oxidation coupled to denitrification, how reverse electron transport produces ferredoxin for carbon fixation, and why aerobic growth yields are only slightly higher compared to denitrification. As a whole, this thesis provides important contributions towards understanding core mechanisms of chemoautrophy, as well as the in situ productivity, physiology and ecology of autotrophic Epsilonproteobacteria.

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High environmental stress and productivity increase functional diversity along a deep‐sea hydrothermal vent gradient

Alfaro-Lucas

Pradillon

Zeppilli

et al. 2020

Ecology

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Productivity and environmental stress are major drivers of multiple biodiversity facets and faunal community structure. Little is known on their interacting effects on early community assembly processes in the deep sea (>200 m), the largest environment on Earth. However, at hydrothermal vents productivity correlates, at least partially, with environmental stress. Here, we studied the colonization of rock substrata deployed along a deep‐sea hydrothermal vent gradient at four sites with and without direct influence of vent fluids at 1,700‐m depth in the Lucky Strike vent field (Mid‐Atlantic Ridge [MAR]). We examined in detail the composition of faunal communities (>20 μm) established after 2 yr and evaluated species and functional patterns. We expected the stressful hydrothermal activity to (1) limit functional diversity and (2) filter for traits clustering functionally similar species. However, our observations did not support our hypotheses. On the contrary, our results show that hydrothermal activity enhanced functional diversity. Moreover, despite high species diversity, environmental conditions at surrounding sites appear to filter for specific traits, thereby reducing functional richness. In fact, diversity in ecological functions may relax the effect of competition, allowing several species to coexist in high densities in the reduced space of the highly productive vent habitats under direct fluid emissions. We suggest that the high productivity at fluid‐influenced sites supports higher functional diversity and traits that are more energetically expensive. The presence of exclusive species and functional entities led to a high turnover between surrounding sites. As a result, some of these sites contributed more than expected to the total species and functional β diversities. The observed faunal overlap and energy links (exported productivity) suggest that rather than operating as separate entities, habitats with and without influence of hydrothermal fluids may be considered as interconnected entities. Low functional richness and environmental filtering suggest that surrounding areas, with their very heterogeneous species and functional assemblages, may be especially vulnerable to environmental changes related to natural and anthropogenic impacts, including deep‐sea mining.

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Chemoautotrophy at Deep-Sea Vents: Past, Present, and Future

Cited by 154 publications

References 26 publications

Exploring the Ecology of Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vents in a Metacommunity Framework

Exploring the Ecology of Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vents in a Metacommunity Framework

Productivity, metabolism and physiology of free-living chemoautotrophic Epsilonproteobacteria

High environmental stress and productivity increase functional diversity along a deep‐sea hydrothermal vent gradient

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