Microbial diversity in the light of the shallow-water hydrothermal vents of Secca delle Fumose (Pozzuoli, Italy)
Italian territory hosts several shallow-water hydrothermal vents (SWHVs) as a result of its tectonic and volcanic activity. These features occur as seeping fluids that, after having interacted at high temperature and pressure with the subsurface rocks, are discharged through the seafloor into the water column. Gases, organic and inorganic nutrients and metals are emitted by hydrothermal fluid into the surrounding ecosystems, with impacts that span from support to primary productivity to toxic effects and multiple stressors imposed by the strong gradients of temperature, pH and chemical species. Here we investigate the effect of the hydrothermal fluid geochemistry on microbial community taxonomic and functional diversity at the underwater geyser of Secca delle Fumose (Pozzuoli, Italy) and in the surrounding seawater column as a proxy of the plume spatial extent.