Publication Date:
2022-05-25
Description:
© The Author(s), 2018. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.of the United States of America 115 (2018): 6756–6761, doi:10.1073/pnas.1804351115.
Description:
The existence of a chemosynthetic subseafloor biosphere was immediately recognized when deep-sea hot springs were discovered in 1977. However, quantifying how much new carbon is fixed in this environment has remained elusive. In this study, we incubated natural subseafloor communities under in situ pressure/temperature and measured their chemosynthetic growth efficiency and metabolic rates. Combining these data with fluid flux and in situ chemical measurements, we derived empirical constraints on chemosynthetic activity in the natural environment. Our study shows subseafloor microorganisms are highly productive (up to 1.4 Tg C produced yearly), fast-growing (turning over every 17–41 hours), and physiologically diverse. These estimates place deep-sea hot springs in a quantitative framework and allow us to assess their importance for global biogeochemical cycles.
Description:
This research was funded by a grant of the Dimensions of Biodiversity
program of the US National Science Foundation (NSF-OCE-1136727
to S.M.S. and J.S.S.). Funding for J.M. was further provided by doctoral fellowships
from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of
Canada (PGSD3-430487-2013, PGSM-405117-2011) and the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration Earth Systems Science Fellowship
(PLANET14F-0075), an award from the Canadian Meteorological and
Oceanographic Society, and the WHOI Academic Programs Office.
Repository Name:
Woods Hole Open Access Server
Type:
Article
