At some point, you probably learned about photosynthesis -- the process by which plants make food using sunlight. But did you ever learn about chemosynthesis? Chemosynthetic organisms use chemical energy to make food. Chemosynthesis is at the heart of deep-sea communities, sustaining life in absolute darkness, where sunlight does not penetrate.
Our knowledge of chemosynthetic communities is relatively new, brought to light by ocean exploration. The thriving communities asso...ciated with hydrothermal vents shocked the scientific world when humans first observed a vent on the deep ocean floor in 1977.
The discovery of hydrothermal vents and cold-water methane seeps gave us a new vision of primary production in the deep sea. The irony is that once scientists knew what to look for, they went to other well-known ecosystems that were rich in hydrogen sulfides, such as salt marshes, and found the same mutualistic association of chemosynthetic bacteria and animals that had stunned them in the deep vents.
No one had ever thought to look for them, but these communities were there all along. Never stop searching...
http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/facts/photochemo.htmlSee More
Our knowledge of chemosynthetic communities is relatively new, brought to light by ocean exploration. The thriving communities asso...ciated with hydrothermal vents shocked the scientific world when humans first observed a vent on the deep ocean floor in 1977.
The discovery of hydrothermal vents and cold-water methane seeps gave us a new vision of primary production in the deep sea. The irony is that once scientists knew what to look for, they went to other well-known ecosystems that were rich in hydrogen sulfides, such as salt marshes, and found the same mutualistic association of chemosynthetic bacteria and animals that had stunned them in the deep vents.
No one had ever thought to look for them, but these communities were there all along. Never stop searching...
http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/facts/photochemo.htmlSee More
