Deep sea vent
This template is a general guideline of how to design your site. You are not restricted to this format, so feel free to make changes to the headings and subheadings and to add additional sections as appropriate.
Description of Niche
Where located?
Physical Conditions?
What are the conditions in your niche? Temperature, pressure, pH, moisture, etc.
Influence by Adjacent Communities (if any)
Is your niche close to another niche or influenced by another community of organisms?
Conditions under which the environment changes
Do any of the physical conditions change? Are there chemicals, other organisms, nutrients, etc. that might change the community of your niche.
Who lives there?
Which microbes are present?
You may refer to organisms by genus or by genus and species, depending upon how detailed the your information might be. If there is already a microbewiki page describing that organism, make a link to it.
Are there any other non-microbes present?
Plants? Animals? Fungi? etc.
Do the microbes that are present interact with each other?
Describe any negative (competition) or positive (symbiosis) behavior
Do the microbes change their environment?
Do they alter pH, attach to surfaces, secrete anything, etc. etc.
Microbe Metabolism Affecting the Environment
The primary source of metabolism for providing food is through animal-bacteria symbiosis. These bacteria are typically chemolithotrophic bacteria. In many worms, they have a layer of tissue called trophosome that fills the body cavity and allows these chemolithotrophic bacteria to live symbiotically in these trophosomes where they can oxidize sulfide. Enzymes in the trophosome also have the capacity to oxidize hydrogen sulfide. The energy produced can be used to drive net fixation of CO2 and to reduce nitrate to ammonia. A mechanism to avoid poisoning aerobic respiration by hydrogen sulfide is protected by sulfide binding proteins in the blood. The idea is to prevent as little free floating sulfide as possible.
Many invertebrates also show a range of O2 consumption that is similar to species that live closer to the surface. Besides a difference in thermal effects, there is no decline of O2 consumption, strongly indicating the importance of endosymbionts. Other organisms, such as deep sea pelagic animals will show a lower O2 consumption due to its inability to swim. If they lose the ability to swim, they can save that energy and lower their O2 consumption.
Current Research
Enter summaries of the most recent research. You may find it more appropriate to include this as a subsection under several of your other sections rather than separately here at the end. You should include at least FOUR topics of research and summarize each in terms of the question being asked, the results so far, and the topics for future study. (more will be expected from larger groups than from smaller groups)
References
Edited by [Vicky Chen , Vicky Kuo , Ban Lam , Pan Lu , Tam Pham , Cassie Tom], students of Rachel Larsen
