STEFAN SIEVERT.

HYDROTHERMAL vents; ANIMAL communities; OCEAN mining; MICROORGANISMS; MICROBIAL ecology; OCEAN bottom; MARINE biology

Unlike surface organisms that depend on energy from the sun, microbes have evolved to survive using chemosynthesis - a process where they use fluid from cracks in the sea floor as fuel. Inside Alvin, a threeperson research submarine, the pilot manipulates the robotic arms to collect fluid samples of microbes living below the seafloor. We don't know how many microbes metabolize chemicals from the sea floor or why some microbes become more dominant under different conditions. [Extracted from the article]

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