Hydrothermal Sea Floor Ecosystems

Instead one finds around the hydrothermal vents densities of animals with standing biomass as high as that of the most productive ecosystems on the planet figure 1.

Hydrothermal sea floor ecosystems.

About 100 of these are sites of high temperature venting and polymetallic sulfide deposits. Hydrothermal fluids the hydrothermal fluids emitted from spreading centers are formed well below the seafloor through the interaction of seawater and heated rocks or magma. The fluid that fuels the ecosystems fol lowed by the physiological ecology of the microbes and animals that flourish in this extreme environment. They occur at mid ocean ridges 65 in back arc basins 22 and on submarine volcanic arcs 12.

Citation fisher c r k. They help regulate ocean chemistry and circulation. Hydrothermal vents are holes that form in areas of seamounts and inject heat from mantle wedge. More than 300 sites of hydrothermal activity and sea floor mineralization are known on the ocean floor.

There is a core in the middle of the earth. Most of them are located along continental plate boundaries. The discovery of metal depositing hot springs on the sea floor and especially their link to chemosynthetic life was among the most compelling and significant scientific advances of the twentieth centurymore than 300 sites of hydrothermal activity and sea floor mineralization are known on the ocean floor about 100 of these are sites of high temperature venting and polymetallic sulfide deposits.