Thousands of metres down in the Galápagos Rift valley, a deep-sea camera is towed along the seafloor, capturing our first glimpse of an extraordinary and alien world. 

Towering chimneys pumping out plumes of black smoke cover the seabed; these are hydrothermal vents.

Despite low oxygen levels, high toxicity and fluid temperatures of up to 350°C, hydrothermal vents host a remarkably diverse array of Ocean life.

These Ocean creatures are specially adapted to these extreme conditions: Giant tubeworms, beds of mussels and clams, fluffy crabs, pink vent fish and more.

The discovery of hydrothermal vents in 1976/ 1977 prompted a new branch of deep-sea biology. Since then more and more species have been discovered. 

Where are hydrothermal vents found?

Hydrothermal vents were one of the first environments to have existed on Earth and have been bubbling away for over 4 billion years. 

Hydrothermal vents can form anywhere a heat source meets a fluid system. They often occur on the seafloor at tectonic plate boundaries. The hot, upwelling magma heats up seawater which is ejected as mineral-rich plumes. 

They are mostly found in the abyssal zone of the Ocean (3,000 – 6,000m). While the majority (65%) of the hydrothermal vents are located close to the tectonic plate boundaries, they are also common (12%) along chains of underwater volcanoes, called volcanic arcs.  

In 2000, a new type of vent was discovered, located several kilometres from a divergent plate boundary (tectonic plates that are moving apart) called Lost City vents. They resemble the spires of an underwater metropolis like Atlantis. 

Take a look at some of the weird and wonderful Ocean life found in the deep-sea: 

Annelid tubeworms (Riftia pachyptila) 

Also called ‘giant tubeworms’, these are extremophiles, meaning they’re able to live in extreme environments, and can reach over 1.8 metres (six feet) tall.

They have a unique body plan with no mouth or anus and their lifestyle is unique, too as they rely entirely on symbiotic bacteria as a food source.  

The Yeti Crab (Kiwa hirsuta) 

This new family of crab was discovered in 2005 and has claws covered in dense setae (stiff bristles). They get almost all their food from the chemoautotrophic bacteria (bacteria that can turn inorganic chemicals into energy) that live in these bristly structures.

These furry crabs have been seen to wave their claws to help provide a flow of oxygen and minerals to their symbiotic bacteria.  

Pompeii worm (Alvinella pompejana)  

Named after the explosive eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Pompeii, the Pompeii worm is the most heat tolerant animal we know of. They can survive temperatures at high as 80°C. One physiological adaptation Pompeii worms have evolved to survive these extreme temperatures are heat shock proteins. These’re specific proteins which provide cells with thermal stability.  

So how are these marine animals living in such extreme conditions? 

Photosynthesis often gets all the credit for providing the energy that flows through food webs by converting light energy into food.

However, there is another lesser-known reaction. Chemosynthesis does the same thing but draws from chemical energy instead. This reaction is what supports the diverse communities we see at hydrothermal vents.

Could hydrothermal vents have sparked the origin of life on Earth?  

Chemosynthetic bacteria found in these communities use the toxic hydrogen sulphide released by hydrothermal vents to convert carbon dioxide into organic carbon molecules.

These form the building blocks to all life on Earth.  

It’s this nifty reaction that’s enabled deep-sea organisms to adapt and survive at hydrothermal vents.  

Animals living here have formed symbiotic relationships with these bacteria which can be incorporated into tissues (endosymbiosis) or on the animal surfaces (ectosymbiosis).

These chemosynthetic bacteria provide energy from the environment for their host. This can be so efficient that some creatures (such as the annelid tubeworm) don’t need to feed at all. 

The discovery of these self-sufficient ecosystems cast new light on the origins of life on Earth. It was here that the unique conditions were suitable for a spontaneous metabolism (the spontaneous formation of molecules that are essential for all life) to occur. 

This discovery gave rise to the question: Does the Ocean hold secret to the origin of life on Earth? 

Theories on the origin of life range from lighting speeding up reactions to comets delivering organic molecules from outer space.

The ancient process of chemosynthesis precedes photosynthesis, and likely sustained the earliest life on Earth. 

Bacteria were some of the first life forms to emerge. The most striking piece of evidence are the parallels between the chemistry spontaneously occurring at these vents and the core metabolic reactions found in these single-celled organisms. 

Cyanobacteria are an ancient group of photosynthetic microbes which represent one of the earliest forms of life on Earth. With fossils dating back to 2000 – 3500 million years ago, these single-celled organisms evolved photosynthesis, allowing life to rise up from the darkness below.  

The rest is history. 

Since their discovery, hydrothermal vents have become the most popular theory among scientists for explaining the origins of life on Earth. Yet much remains to be discovered. Secrets still held within these mysterious ecosystems have the potential to revise our life-on-Earth theories once again. 

Cover image via Research Feature.

Post by

Olivia Jones

A dead whale descends into the darkness of the deep-sea abyss.

In life, these majestic creatures travel vast distances playing an important role in surface ecology. But even in death, their decaying remains become a haven of life on the black Ocean floor.

Here in the deep Ocean the environment is sparse, offering fewer resources to sustain life. What falls from above, marine snow, is the steady trickle of dead organic material and supports an array of life on the seabed. 

A dead whale is a 30-tonne avalanche of fat and organic carbon, equivalent to more than 1000 years’ worth of marine snow across 100 square meters. 

Eventually, a whale fall (a whale’s death) becomes an island of biodiversity in the deep-Ocean.

1. It all starts with a feeding frenzy. 

Soon after the whale falls, a variety of species descend upon it and the dinner party begins.

The first to arrive are the large Ocean wanderers such as hagfish (eel-shaped jawless fish) or gigantic sleeper sharks. These mobile scavengers remove soft tissue by rasping or tearing at the flesh exposing the energy-rich skeleton, giving the name of this phase the mobile-scavenger stage.

2. As the pieces get smaller so do the scavengers. 

It can take up to two years for the mobile-scavengers to finish feeding on the whale, where the next wave of guests arrives in a second phase known as the enrichment-opportunist stage.

Animals like polychaetes (a class of marine worms) and crustaceans including amphipods (shrimp-like crustacea) will move in to feed on remaining blubber and burrow into the nutrient enriched sediments surrounding the whale.  

3. Finally, only the bones of the whale remain.

These would seemingly have no further use. However, ecological diversity is about to flourish in the sulfophilic stage of the whale fall. The whale’s bones provide a large reservoir of energy-rich lipids, a shining prize to deep-sea organisms. 

Bacteria break down fatty lipids in the bones, releasing sulphides. The sulphides can be used to generate energy, in a process called chemosynthesis (producing food using chemicals as an energy source instead of sunlight).

These chemosynthetic bacteria have become resistant to sulphides’ toxicity and can establish bacterial mats which act as a foundational food source, supporting a huge array of marine biodiversity: sponges, mussels, limpets, sea spiders and snails.

The breakdown of bone-lipids can take 50-100 years and these mini-ecosystems are highly significant for seabed ecology. Even then, after the complete extraction of nutrients, it isn’t over.  

Decades after a whale dies, the whale-fall is still essential to marine ecosystems:  

Some scientists believe there’s a further stage of succession: the reef stage. Even after the feeding frenzy, the whales’ bones can remain for more than 100 years, acting as hard surface for suspension feeders to settle.

These ‘habitat islands’ act as evolutionary stepping stones between other seafloor ecosystems like hydrothermal vents. This may have allowed sulphide-specialised organisms to spread across the seafloor and diverge into new species. 

Despite whale-fall ecosystems being poorly sampled, 407 species have been found living off the carcasses globally, which is high for the bottom of the sea. Of these, 21 species can only be found on whale-fall, known as whale-fall specialists.

Whale-fall specialists are species that require a whale carcass to complete their lifecycle and maintain their populations. These marine organisms will jump from habitat island to island to survive.

For example, Osedax, Latin for “bone-eater”, are a genus of polychaetes (marine worms) found worldwide.  They are important ecosystem engineers by eroding whale bones and allowing rarer species to colonise the whale skeleton.  

How whale populations impact the global Ocean? 

Whale-falls also contribute to the conversion of inorganic carbon (CO2) into organic carbon (marine life), a set of processes known as the Biological Carbon Pump (BCP). This carbon is sequestered (stored) in the deep Ocean.  

Whales deliver huge amounts of carbon in their biomass to the seafloor, which is then locked-away for centuries within deep-sea sediments.

Any threat to whale populations will threaten entire ecosystems and disrupt the process of carbon sequestration.

Commercial whaling, for example, has been depleting whale populations for around 1000 years, beginning in 1000CE. Experts agree that tens of millions of whales were likely killed during this period, pushing many whale species to extinction and causing the extinction of whale-fall specialist species, who rely on whale falls for survival.

A single whale-fall can provide everything a whale-fall specialist needs for 50-100 years, meaning there is a lag-time of at least 30-40 years before the decline in whale populations is felt. Which is to say, if whale populations can recover, we may be able to mitigate the impacts on deep-sea ecosystems

As we follow the timeline of a whale’s life, we can see the incredible contribution whales make to the Ocean.

From enhancing surface ecology in life, to supporting entire ecosystems in death. 

Post by

Olivia Jones