The Zoarcid Fish

In 1977 a newly discovered rainbow vent field, in the mid Atlantic Ridge was visited by biologists. During one of the dives, a Zoarcid fish was seen dwelling among the mussels. This was the first time this fish was ever seen and on their next expedition, they took specimens to analyze the newly discovered species.
The Zoarcid fish, or eelpout, live near tube worms and mussels near sea vents. this two foot long white fish, despite being a slow moving fish, they are the top predators of there ecosystem. They feast on things like crabs to tube worms. These fish have a huge appetite and spend a lot of time floating around clumps tube worms and mussels.

www.divediscover.whoi.edu/vents/index.html

Hydrothermal Vent Ecosystem

A hydrothermal vent is formed mineral-rich, superheated water flowing through cracks and fissures in the ocean crust. They are typically found near hotspots and divergent margins (mid-ocean ridges). Ocean water percolates through the cracks in the ocean crust and is heated at depth. The superheated mineral-rich water then rises back through the ocean crust and is ejected out through the vents forming black smokers and white smokers. Sulfide minerals are precipitated out at the surface and the continued precipitation of these minerals creates chimney like structures. The minerals precipitated out include pyrite, anhydrite, copper, zinc, and other precious metals.

Hydrothermal Vent (Black Smoker)

Cartoon image of Hydrothermal vent formation

http://www.geology.sdsu.edu/how_volcanoes_work/Thumblinks/blksmoker_page.html
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK26866/

Chemosynthetic Bacteria

Chemosynthetic Bacteria make up the base of the food chain in the Hydrothermal Vent ecosystem. An example of a Chemosynthetic Bacteria is Arcobacter sulfidicus. This bacteria has 4 tails and is shaped like a thin oval. It gets its energy from eating sulfide and oxygen molecules within the water near the vents.
It takes hydrogen sulfide out of the water, digests the sulfur and then emits it back out into the ocean water. This helps create "free" sulfur in the water that then reacts with iron in the water to form minerals like pyrite. These minerals help build up the vent system with time.
Arcobacter sulfidicus also makes its "tails" (flagella), out of sulfur. It launches its flagella out and other Arcobacter's latch onto the flagella with theirs. This helps create a mat of the bacteria and provides stabilization from hydrothermal vent currents.
A picture of Arcobacter sulfidicus is found at this website:

http://sites.google.com/site/adoptamicrobe/adoption-center/arcobactersulfidicus

Arcobacter sulfidicus

Chemosynthetic Bacteria

Zooplankton -Calanoid Copepod

Copepods are highly diverse and abundant, resulting in extensive ecological radiation in marine ecosystems.Calanus sinicus dominates continental shelf waters in the northwest Pacific Ocean and plays an important role in the local ecosystem by linking primary production to higher trophic levels. A lack of effective molecular markers has hindered phylogenetic and population genetic studies concerning copepods. As they are genome-level informative, mitochondrial DNA sequences can be used as markers for population genetic studies and phylogenetic studies. Copepods play an important role in the aquatic ecosystem and are highly diverse. They comprise a multitude of taxa including 200 families, 1,650 genera and 11,500 species, although this estimation may represent only 15% of the actual number. Copepods have successfully colonized almost all aquatic regimes and have developed diverse lifestyles.

Name: Calanus Sinicus
Description: Females are about 0.8-1.2mm; Males are about 0.7-1mm. Live in pelagic environment; subtropical climate. Limited free movement by flicking jointed limbs and antennae. Antennae helps to prevent from sinking through the water column. Temperature, hydrodynamics, stratification and seasonal variability are likely to be the main factors contributing to the regulation of diversity. Moderate temperature convey advantages to copepods living in coastal upwelling zones. Coastal upwelling zones are highly advective environments. Advection and diffusion may control life cycle closure. Upwelling surface waters (the upper 10-30m of the water column are carried offshore by Ekman transport resulting from equator-ward blowing winds, to minimize offshore transport they must spend time below the offshore moving layers, in the deeper shoreward-moving waters.)

Currents/water masses and the species association suggest that the species groups may be used as an environmental indicator to evaluate long-term changes in the marine environment. Hydrogen sulfide, metals in solution, and other chemical compounds escape into the sea water, organisms produce organic matter from the hydrogen sulfide. The organisms glow by a chemical reaction; they emit blue light to prevent them from predators.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=copepods-everywhere-you-look-and-ev-2009-05-11

http://www.sahfos.ac.uk/education/Edu_plankton_bio_indicators_of_change.htm

http://www.mdsg.umd.edu/issues/chesapeake/food_web/

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3914725

Norwich GL111 Term Project Introductions

As part of our Introduction to Oceanography class this Spring 2011 semester at Norwich University, our group will be researching and presenting on plants and animals that live in an ecosystem called a 'Hydrothermal Vent'.

We have four group members:
Liz Randall, James Abare, Rafhanah Pitkin, and Ethan Thomas

Each member of our group will be reporting on a different marine organism that lives in the hydrothermal vent ecosystem. One will be a zooplankton, one a phytoplankton, one a marine invertebrate, and one a marine vertebrate.

As part of an integrated approach, we will be researching how our organisms interact with the other aspects of the ocean system (geological, physical, and chemical).