SGER: Temperature Arrays for Investigation of Active Sulfide Structures

9817065 Delaney这个小型勘探研究补助金(SGER)项目涉及机会主义和高风险的研究，这些研究涉及控制海底热液喷口区域活跃增长的硫化物矿床中微生物群落分布和丰度的相关过程。在一次合作的海洋探险的基础上，从海底打捞出几个大型活跃的硫化物结构，并对这个不断演变的栖息地内表面大型动物群落的分布、丰度和群落动态以及微生物活动进行创新研究，研究人员将利用这次恢复事件作为扰动实验，检查附近流出地点的管道，并跟踪硫化物栖息地沉积物的最终再生。为获得这一信息，提供了资金，用于开发和部署蜘蛛温度阵列、用于监测一年期间硫化物结构再生长的现场树桩温度组合，以及用于对生物群落的硫化物生长和再定居进行目视监测的延时相机。这项研究的结果将对金属矿床的形成、微生物在热液系统中的作用以及受扰动的海底热液系统的物理和化学变化产生重大影响。

9817065DelaneyThis Small Grants for Exploratory Research (SGER) project involves opportunistic and high risk research into the linked processes that govern the distribution and abundance of microbial communities within actively growing sulfide deposits on seafloor hydrothermal vent fields. Building upon a collaborative seagoing expedition to recover several large active sulfide structures from the seafloor, and to conduct innovative research on the distribution, abundance and community dynamics of surficial macrofaunal communities and microbial activity within this evolving habitat, researchers will utilize the recovery event as a perturbation experiment to examine the plumbing of nearby outflow sites, and track the ultimate regrowth of the sulfide habitat-deposit. To obtain this information funds are provided for development and deployment of a spider-temperature array, an in-situ stump temperature package for monitoring regrowth of a sulfide structure over a one year period, and for a time lapse camera, which allows visual monitoring of sulfide growth and recolonization by biological communities. The results of this research will bear significantly on the formation of metal deposits, on the roles of microorganisms in hydrothermal systems, and on the shifting physics and chemistry of perturbed submarine hydrothermal systems.