Journal Articles Nature Communications Year : 2024

Animal life in the shallow subseafloor crust at deep-sea hydrothermal vents

Monika Bright
Ian Vincent Hughes
Tihomir Makovec
  • Function : Author
Jessica Mitchell
Philipp Pröts
Ivonne Rodríguez-Ramírez
Stefan M Sievert
Jan Steger
Tinkara Tinta
Zach Bright
  • Function : Author
Russel Coffield
  • Function : Author
Carl Hill
  • Function : Author
Kris Ingram
  • Function : Author
Alex Paris
  • Function : Author

Abstract

It was once believed that only microbes and viruses inhabited the subseafloor crust beneath hydrothermal vents. Yet, on the seafloor, animals like the giant tubeworm Riftia pachyptila thrive. Their larvae are thought to disperse in the water column, despite never being observed there. We hypothesized that these larvae travel through the subseafloor via vent fluids. In our exploration, lifting lobate lava shelves revealed adult tubeworms and other vent animals in subseafloor cavities. The discovery of vent endemic animals below the visible seafloor shows that the seafloor and subseafloor faunal communities are connected. The presence of adult tubeworms suggests larval dispersal through the recharge zone of the hydrothermal circulation system. Given that many of these animals are host to dense bacterial communities that oxidize reduced chemicals and fix carbon, the extension of animal habitats into the subseafloor has implications for local and regional geochemical flux measurements. These findings underscore the need for protecting vents, as the extent of these habitats has yet to be fully ascertained.
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hal-04885158 , version 1 (14-01-2025)

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Monika Bright, Sabine Gollner, André Luiz de Oliveira, Salvador Espada-Hinojosa, Avery Fulford, et al.. Animal life in the shallow subseafloor crust at deep-sea hydrothermal vents. Nature Communications, 2024, 15 (1), pp.8466. ⟨10.1038/s41467-024-52631-9⟩. ⟨hal-04885158⟩
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