| > Oceanography > Issues > Archive > Volume 20, Number 1 |
2007, Oceanography 20(1):14–23, http://dx.doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2007.75
Hydrothermal Vent Ecosystems
Authors | First Paragraph | Full Article | Citation
Authors
Charles R. Fisher | Department of Biology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA
Ken Takai | Extremobiosphere Research Center, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Yokosuka, Japan
Nadine Le Bris | Département Étude des Ecosystèmes Environnement Profonds, Ifremer, Plouzané, France
First Paragraph
The analogy between hydrothermal vents and desert oases has been made many times since the discovery of the lush communities of animals that live around sites of active hydrothermal venting along oceanic spreading centers. Indeed, without the bacterial chemoautotrophic primary production that forms the basis of the food chain for these communities, the new seafloor would be even more barren than the older surrounding seafloor. Instead, one finds around the hydrothermal vents densities of animals with standing biomass as high as that of the most productive ecosystems on the planet (Figure 1).
Full Article
Citation
Fisher, C.R., K. Takai, and N. Le Bris. 2007. Hydrothermal vent ecosystems. Oceanography 20(1):14–23, http://dx.doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2007.75.