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

热液烟囱的多孔壁是微生物的理想栖息地，因为那里存在陡峭的化学和热梯度。 在这项拟议的研究中，PI团队将研究在几分钟到几个月的时间尺度内生长的烟囱中的物理和化学条件，然后确定微生物在这个框架中的分布。 此外，该研究还将有一个建模部分，试图确定在将营养物质和其他化学物质带到地表的深层反应区正在发生什么样的地下地球化学过程。 这是与Stakes，Wheat和Koski的合作，并将使用R/V Western Flyer（MBARI船）和Tiburon来研究生长的烟囱。 热电偶阵列将被放置在不断增长的烟囱上，然后随着烟囱的增长而被包围。 随后，将恢复烟囱，并以各种方式研究微生物群，包括培养和分子系统发育方法。 同时，还将详细研究烟囱和相关喷口流体的硫化物矿物，以获得矿物学、化学和同位素数据，这些数据限制了微生物生长、演替和多样性的化学条件。 将进行热力学和对流扩散建模，以限制代谢活动可用的化学能的数量和来源。 这项研究将提供一个多学科的研究硫化物烟囱和微生物之间的相互作用。

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.