. Deep-sea biodiversity and ecosystems - a scoping report on their socio-economy, management and governance. UNEP-WCMC Biodiversity Series 28. Sampling of hydrothermal vent chimneys in the North East Pacific at 260 metre depth using ROV Victor. HYDROTHERMALVENTS Hydrothermal vents were discovered in 1977 and are commonly found in volcanically active areas of the seafloor (for example, mid-ocean ridges, tectonic plate margins, above magma hotspots in the Earth's crust), where geothermally heated gases and water plumes rich in minerals and chemical energy are released from the seafloor. Vents ha
. Deep-sea biodiversity and ecosystems - a scoping report on their socio-economy, management and governance. UNEP-WCMC Biodiversity Series 28. Sampling of hydrothermal vent chimneys in the North East Pacific at 260 metre depth using ROV Victor. HYDROTHERMALVENTS Hydrothermal vents were discovered in 1977 and are commonly found in volcanically active areas of the seafloor (for example, mid-ocean ridges, tectonic plate margins, above magma hotspots in the Earth's crust), where geothermally heated gases and water plumes rich in minerals and chemical energy are released from the seafloor. Vents have been documented in many oceans at Gorgonian corals at the Carlos Ribeiro mud volcano in the Gulf of Cadiz, south of the Iberian depths of 850 to 2 800 metres and deeper, with one of the largest fields at 1 700 metres below sea level off the Azores in the Atlantic ISantos ef al., 2003]. On contact with the surrounding cold deep-ocean seawater, the minerals in the superheated lup to 400°C] plumes precipitate and form the characteristic chimneys (which can grow up to 30 centimetres a day and reach heights of up to 60 metres] and polymetallic (copper, iron, zinc, silver] sulphide deposits. Hydrothermal vents host a unigue fauna of microbes, invertebrates Ifor example, mussels and crabs] and fish. The local food chains are based on bacteria converting the sulphur-rich emissions into energy, that is, are independent from the sun as an original source for energy. The chemosynthesis of minerals, and the extreme physical and chemical conditions under which hydro- thermal vent ecosystems thrive, may provide further clues on the evolution of life on Earth. Although hydrothermal vent communities are not very diverse in comparison with those in nearby sediments (Tunnicliffe et al., 2003], the biomass around such vents can be 500-1 000 times that of the surrounding deep sea, rivalling values of some of the most productive marine ecosystems. Over 500 vent species have so far b
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