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Overview

Electron micrograph of the Ebola Zaire virus. This was the first photo ever taken of the virus, on 10/13/1976. By Dr. F.A. Murphy, now at U.C. Davis, then at the CDC.

By [Jonathan Murray]

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Legend/credit: Electron micrograph of the Ebola Zaire virus. This was the first photo ever taken of the virus, on 10/13/1976. By Dr. F.A. Murphy, now at U.C. Davis, then at the CDC. Every image requires a link to the source.
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“Life”, esteemed Mathematician and chaos theorist Ian Malcom once said, “finds a way”. In no environment does this maxim hold quite as much weight as does the black smokers of the ocean sea-floors. “Black Smokers” are hydrothermal vents found at sights of tectonic ridges and seafloor spreading, and spew jets of intensely hot chemically-laden fluids [1]. Devoid of light, scarce of oxygen, and crushed under intense pressure from the ocean above, such an environment appears uninhabitable to our standards. Nevertheless, a diverse group of microbes and microbes have managed to make black smokers their home, taking advantage of the heat, inorganic compounds, and even the radiation of the superheated rock to sustain themselves[2]. The microbes found at black smokers are known as “extremophiles” for the ability to thrive in places otherwise lethal to other forms of life, thanks in part to physiological processes and enzymes able to function under harsh conditions such as intense heat, known collectively as “extremozymes”[3]. These microbes form both the principal primary production of the environment through chemoautotrophy, and some forms of photoautotrophy, and are essential to the survival of several of the macro-organisms discovered at the black smokers[2]. In fact, the ability of these microbes to sustain life under such conditions have led many microbiologists to theorize that the ecology of black smokers may reflect some of the earliest stages of life on earth[4].
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Environment of Black Smokers

The key to the formation of black smokers, and subsequently their surrounding ecology, is sea-floor spreading. When the tectonic plates of earth’s crusts are shifted, pulled, and moved thanks to the (modeled) convection currents of earth’s asthenosphere, at some boundaries between plates the crust diverges, allowing intensely hot magma to surge upward from below the earth’s surface. This forms a tectonic boundary known as a ridge[5]. At the ocean floor, these ridges are referred to as mid-ocean ridges, and when seawater enters the ridge and mixes with the super-heated magma, it produces a hydrothermal fluid which builds significant pressure until erupting off the ocean floor like an underwater gyre[6]. This hydrothermal fluid can be further cooled by the seawater, resulting in mineral deposition that forms the characteristic chimney-like structures of the black smokers. The vents which create black smokers tend to be hotter, anoxic, acidic and sulfurous[8], producing the characteristic black color and structures that can reach as high as 180 feet. By contrast, the vents which produce the sibling of the black smokers, the white smokers, tend to have cooler plumes rich in barium, calcium, and silicon [5]. In general, the seafloor itself is devoid of sunlight and suffers from immense pressure. At the Juan de Fuca Ridge in the Pacific Ocean, the hydrothermal vents discovered there experience an equivalent pressure of 250 atmosphere, or as one author puts it, the same pressure as one would experience from an elephant standing on their big toe[7]. The “extreme” of the black smokers also applies to their temperature gradients; the superheated fluids and rock of the vents surrounding by the serious cold of the deep ocean can range from near 0 to 400oC. With conditions like these, scientists assumed that no life could survive here until exploration of ridges in the late 1970s revealed hundreds of previously unknown species[5]. The microbes which make the black smokers their home are well adapted to use the heat, radiation, and anoxic chemical-laden fluids of the smokers to drive their food production, and subsequently support a “biological oasis”[6].

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Microbial Diversity of Black Smokers: Taxonomy

As described above, the microbial communities of black smokers can reach high levels of species diversity, but are mostly dominated by prokaryotic members. Generally speaking, prokaryotic communities can be found in more structured mats or in free-living populations, and several phyla of hyperthermophilic archaea can be found on or within the black smokers themselves, while a mix of thermophilic archaea and bacteria species can be found in the cooler gradients surrounding the chimneys[8]. Studies revealed that amongst the sequenced populations proteobacteria and euryarchaeota were the best represented phylum[6][8]. Amongst these phyllum, the Epsilonproteobacteria and the Archaeoglobus/Thermococcus/Methanococcus archaea were the most heavily represented class[6]. Given their adaptation to extreme environments, most microbial species from black smokers are currently uncultivable; study is primarily done through DNA sequencing analysis of the 16S rRNA gene and organic geochemical techniques such as analyzing samples of lipid biomarkers[8].

Microbial Diversity of Black Smokers: Metabolic Diversity

Amongst the black smoker microbes, the anoxic hydrothermal fluids, lack of solar light, and the inorganic chemical deposits and solutes mean the vast majority of black smoker microbes are anaerobic chemoautotrophs, either employing sulfate reducing or methane-based metabolic processes. Within the chimney’s themselves, the hyperthermophilic archaea’s are primarily methanogens, performing autotrophic reduction of carbon dioxide coupled with hydrogen oxidation[6]. Outside the chimneys where the thermal gradient cools, the iron sulfide compounds heavy in concentration in the chimney’s hydrothermal fluids and deposits support a community of sulfide and metal oxidizers, as well as other methanogens[6]. However, evidence supports the presence of some unique metabolisms as well. Several species of thermophilic archaea with heterotrophic metabolisms have been isolated as well, though they too employ sulfur-based or iron-based reductions[8]. Even more unique, some microbes with phototrophic capabilities as well; one sulfur-oxidizing bacterium was found to also be able to engage in phototrophic metabolisms by using the blackbody radiation of the superheated vent rock[6].

Expansion topic 1-3

How you expand upon the basics will depend on your environment. Pick a couple or three of interesting subtopics and describe them in detail. Include some current research, with at least one figure showing data.

Key Microbial Players

In all of your systems there will be at least a couple of key microbial players. Describe these in detail. Where do they fall on the tree of life? Are they cultured? What do they do in general and as it relates to your target environment?

References

Authored for Earth 373 Microbial Ecology, taught by Magdalena Osburn, 2020, NU Earth Page.