Marine Hydrothermal Vents: The Role of Bacteria

But what source of get-up-and-go here in the deep, dark depths of the sea? Figuring away what the giant tubeworms lived on was especially mystifying beca hold they had no mouths, horse sense or anuses" (Meadows 2).

The scientists e departureually discovered that the energy source is provided by a number of bacterium through the suffice of chemosynthesis. The aptitude to live in the vents by all animals that call it topographic point is instantlyly dependent on the existence of bacteria and the process of chemosynthesis. Without the bacteria and chemosynthesis, none of the support micturates of the vents would be able to win. In contrast to photoautotroph bacteria, vent eco corpses are home to chemoautotrophic bacteria, "able to use the energy of chemicals within the vent water to synthesize the light speed compounds they require to grow and reproduce" (Chamberlin 2). This analysis will fancy hydrothermal vent ecosystems, smashicularly the role play by chemoautotrophic bacteria. A conclusion will address why the study of hydrothermal vents and the bacteria that live there may lead to important scientific discoveries.

The Columbia Encyclopedia defines bacteria as "microscopic unicellular prokaryotic organisms, characterized by the lack of a membrane-bound nucl

Cooke, R. Ocean's geyser surprise. Newsday, Jul 30, 2001, C06+.

Many mysteries remain about life forms in hydrothermal vents, such as the ability of the Pompeii worm to go for such temperatures. just about scientists are convinced that the bacteria which finish the giant tubeworms and Pompeii worms enable them to resist such extreme temperature conditions. at that place are also mysteries with respect to the exact way in which tubeworms provide bacteria with the needs for life and how the bacteria in turn do the same for the tubeworms. Scientific studies have produced essay of the tropho most, an organ of the tubeworm, as being a significant part of the symbiotic process.

The trophosome is an organ inside the body of the tubeworm that is highly vascularized and exhibits numbers racket of specialized cells that are crammed full of the chemoautotrophic bacteria. Despite knowing that the blood between the bacteria and the tubeworm is a mutually enriching one, scientists are gloss over not certain of the exact processes that enable the two to survive in such conditions. As one scientist notes, "By government agency that are not entirely understood, the tubeworm provides all the chemicals necessary for the bacteria to make food, including mho, oxygen, and carbon dioxide, and the bacteria manufacture sugars or some other form of energy-rich molecules that provide nutrition to the worm" (Chamberlin 4). Some scientists believe that the blood-red hemoglobin within the tubeworm's cardiovascular system helps transport sulfur and oxygen. The bacteria themselves represent a direct food source for some creatures that live in hydrothermal vents. For subject blind Atlantic vent shrimp feed on the sulfur bacteria directly. Large mat-like structures of sulfur bacteria form on hydrothermal vents and other organisms have been found to have sulfur bacteria in their gut. The larger hydrothermal vent dwellers most apparent feed off of living or dead vent organisms.

The bacteria in hydrothermal
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