MICROBIOLOGY OF DEEP-SEA HYDROTHERMAL VENTS

Before the discovery of deep-sea hydrothermal vents in 1977, the deep sea was perceived as a cold, dark, high-pressure and nutrient-poor env ironment inhabited by psychrophilic, oligotrophic and barotolerant-to- barophilic microbial communities. By contrast, deep-sea-vent areas are warm-to-hot and inhabited by animal communities whose density may rea ch 50 kg m(-2). Invertebrates living in these warm biotopes are in end osymbiotic relationships with autotrophic sulphur-oxidizing bacteria. in the hot areas of the ecosystem, temperatures often reach 350 degree s C, and precipitation produces mineral structures (black smokers) tha t contain thermophilic microorganisms.