title: Predicting the response of the deep-ocean microbiome to geochemical perturbations by hydrothermal vents.
abstract: Submarine hydrothermal vents perturb the deep-ocean microbiome by injecting reduced chemical species into the water column that act as an energy source for chemosynthetic organisms. These systems thus provide excellent natural laboratories for studying the response of microbial communities to shifts in marine geochemistry. The present study explores the processes that regulate coupled microbial-geochemical dynamics in hydrothermal plumes by means of a novel mathematical model, which combines thermodynamics, growth and reaction kinetics, and transport processes derived from a fluid dynamics model. Simulations of a plume located in the ABE vent field of the Lau basin were able to reproduce metagenomic observations well and demonstrated that the magnitude of primary production and rate of autotrophic growth are largely regulated by the energetics of metabolisms and the availability of electron donors, as opposed to kinetic parameters. Ambient seawater was the dominant source of microbes to the plume and sulphur oxidisers constituted almost 90% of the modelled community in the neutrally-buoyant plume. Data from drifters deployed in the region allowed the different time scales of metabolisms to be cast in a spatial context, which demonstrated spatial succession in the microbial community. While growth was shown to occur over distances of tens of kilometers, microbes persisted over hundreds of kilometers. Given that high-temperature hydrothermal systems are found less than 100 km apart on average, plumes may act as important vectors between different vent fields and other environments that are hospitable to similar organisms, such as oil spills and oxygen minimum zones.
authors: Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
authors: Daniel C
authors: DC
authors: Reed
authors: Department of Ocean Physics and Engineering, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, USA.
authors: John A
authors: JA
authors: Breier
authors: Department of Ocean Physics and Engineering, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, USA.
authors: Houshuo
authors: H
authors: Jiang
authors: Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
authors: Karthik
authors: K
authors: Anantharaman
authors: Kellogg Biological Station, Department of Plant Biology, Michigan State University, Hickory Corners, MI, USA.
authors: Christopher A
authors: CA
authors: Klausmeier
authors: Department of Soil, Water, and Climate, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, St. Paul, MN, USA.
authors: Brandy M
authors: BM
authors: Toner
authors: Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Institute, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA.
authors: Cathrine
authors: C
authors: Hancock
authors: 1] Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Institute, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA [2] Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA.
authors: Kevin
authors: K
authors: Speer
authors: Division of Ocean and Climate Physics, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, NY, USA.
authors: Andreas M
authors: AM
authors: Thurnherr
authors: Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
authors: Gregory J
authors: GJ
authors: Dick
mesh_terms: D052818:Autotrophic Processes / Q000502:physiology; D001419:Bacteria / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D060086:Hydrothermal Vents / Q000382:microbiology*; D056186:Metagenomics; D064307:Microbiota; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009792:Oceans and Seas; D012623:Seawater / Q000737:chemistry / Q000382:microbiology*; D013816:Thermodynamics