Publication Date:
2022-05-25
Description:
Author Posting. © Oceanography Society, 2007. This article is posted here by permission of Oceanography Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Oceanography 20, 1 (2007): 30-41.
Description:
The discovery of hydrothermal vents and the unique, often endemic
fauna that inhabit them represents one of the most extraordinary
scientific discoveries of the latter twentieth century. Not surprisingly,
after just 30 years of study of these remarkable—and extremely
remote—systems, advances in understanding the animals and microbial
communities living around hydrothermal vents seem to
occur with every fresh expedition to the seafloor. On average, two
new species are described each month—a rate of discovery that has
been sustained over the past 25–30 years. Furthermore, the physical, geological, and
geochemical features of each part of the ridge system and its associated
hydrothermal-vent structures appear to dictate which novel
biological species can live where. Only 10 percent of the ridge
system has been explored for hydrothermal activity to date (Baker
and German, 2004), yet we find different diversity patterns in that
small fraction. While it is well known that species composition varies
along discrete segments of the global ridge system, this “biogeographic
puzzle” has more pieces missing than pieces in place.
Description:
E. Ramirez-Llodra is supported by
the ChEss-Census of Marine Life program
(A.P. Sloan Foundation), which
is kindly acknowledged. C.R. German
also acknowledges support from ChEss-
Census of Marine Life and further support
from the Natural Environment
Research Council (UK) and from the
US National Science Foundation (NSF)
and National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA). T. Shank
acknowledges support from NSF, the US
National Aeronautic and Space Administration
Astrobiology Program, NOAA-Ocean
Exploration, and the Deep-Ocean
Exploration Institute at the Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution.
Repository Name:
Woods Hole Open Access Server
Type:
Article
Format:
application/pdf
