Collaborative Research: Evolution Of Environments Within Black Smoker Chimney Walls: Microbial Colonization As Functions Of Temperature, Chemistry, And Time

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The porous walls of hydrothermal chimneys are ideal habitats for microorganisms because of the steep chemical and thermal gradients present there. In this proposed study, the PI team will study the physical and chemical conditions in growing chimneys over time scales of minutes to months and then determine the distribution of microorganisms in this framework. In addition, there will be a modeling component of the study that will try to determine what subsurface geochemical processes are occurring in the deep reaction zones that bring nutrients and other chemicals to the surface. This is a collaboration with Stakes, Wheat, and Koski, and will use the R/V Western Flyer (MBARI ship) and the ROV Tiburon to stud growing chimneys. Thermocouple arrays will be placed on growing chimnes and then will be enveloped as the chimney grows. Later, the chimneys will be recovered and the microbiota studied in wide variety of ways including culturing and molecular phylogenetic methods. At the same time, the sulfide minerals of the chimneys and associated vent fluids will also be studied in detail to yield mineralogic, chemical and isotopic data that constrain the chemical conditions of microbial growth, succession, and diversity. Thermodynamic and advective-diffusive modeling will be carried out to constrain the amounts and sources of chemical energy available for metabolic activity. This study will provide a multidisciplinary study of the interaction between growing sulfide chimneys and microbes.