Hy­dro­thermal sys­tems in dif­fer­ent wa­ter depths

Re­search cruise with the MET­EOR starts.

Ex­ped­i­tion in­vest­ig­ates hy­dro­thermal sys­tems in dif­fer­ent wa­ter depths for the first time.

Deep-sea hydrothermal vents, also often called black smokers because of their characteristic appearance, are a hotspot of life. The vents are often the only source of food, which is why symbioses between animals and microorganisms form here. Hydrothermal systems also exist in shallower waters. Food scarcity is not prevalent because of the availability of light and the associated possibility of photosynthesis, and yet here, too, there are microorganisms that are specialized in using energy from the earth’s interior.

How such hydrothermal systems function in shallow water is the focus of a MARUM expedition that will start in Piraeus (Greece) in August and whose destination is the Mediterranean island of Milos. During the expedition M192 with the research vessel METEOR, the researchers on board will search the area around Milos for hydrothermal systems and subsequently sample their geology, geochemistry, and (micro)biology, both in the shallow, coastal light-flooded zone and in deep, offshore dark waters.

Dr. Solveig Bühring from MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen is leading the cruise, following up on work in her DFG-funded Emmy Noether group “Hydrothermal Geomicrobiology”. “Until now, shallow water and deep-sea hydrothermal systems have been treated as independent, seemingly unrelated entities; this expedition is a first attempt to remove this arbitrary boundary and study hydrothermal systems as a continuum,” says Solveig Bühring.

The expedition begins on August 8 and is divided into two legs. On the first part of the expedition, the team will map hydrothermal vents on board using the multibeam echo sounder on board and the autonomous diving robot MARUM-SEAL 5000. On the second part of the cruise, the researchers will sample hydrothermal vents at different water depths. For this purpose, they will use the diving robot MARUM-SQUID.

Wissenschaftliche Ansprechpartner:

Dr. Solveig Bühring [https://www.marum.de/en/Dr.-solveig-bhring.html]
MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, University of Bremen
Petrology of the ocean crust
Email: sbuehring@marum.de

Weitere Informationen:

https://www.marum.de/en/Dr.-solveig-bhring/M-192.html – Expedition page
https://www.marum.de/Entdecken/Logbuch-M192.html – Expedition logbook (in German)

https://www.marum.de/en/Discover/M192.html