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Activities of sulfur-oxidizing bacteria at the 21°N East Pacific Rise vent site

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Abstract

The incorporation of inorganic and organic carbon into cell material, as well as the activities of carboxylating enzymes (ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase and phosphoenol pyruvate carboxylase), were measured in waters emitted from “warm” vents at the 21°N ocean spreading site (depth 2 600 m) of the East Pacific Rise. Both obligately and facultatively chemoautotrophic bacteria were present and comprised a significant but variable portion of the total microbial population as indicated by comparisons of microscopic cell counts with liquid enrichments and colony counts on media containing reduced sulfur compounds. The proportion of chemoautotrophic, sulfur-oxidizing bacteria maximally reached 79% of the total microbial population based on ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase activity. Variability of chemoautotrophic activity occurred between vents at different locations, but was also observed in one individual vent. Maximum rates of CO2 incorporation in warm vent water were similar to levels measured previously in the O2/H2S interface of the Black Sea. In shipboard experiments, these rates were virtually unaffected by in-situ pressures (ca 260 atm). Rate measurements at various temperatures, as well as the observed mesophilic characteristics of all isolates obtained, suggest that the microbial, chemoautotrophic activity decreases rapidly as freshly emitted vent water is diluted with cold, ambient, deep-sea water.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 02543, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, USA

    C. O. Wirsen & H. W. Jannasch

  2. Center for Environmental and Estuarine Studies, Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, University of Maryland, 20688-0038, Solomons, Maryland, USA

    J. H. Tuttle

Authors
  1. C. O. Wirsen
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  2. J. H. Tuttle
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  3. H. W. Jannasch
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Additional information

Communicated by J.M. Shick, Orono

Contribution No. 6071 of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Contribution No. 1708 of the Center for Environmental and Estuarine Studies of the University of Maryland

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Wirsen, C.O., Tuttle, J.H. & Jannasch, H.W. Activities of sulfur-oxidizing bacteria at the 21°N East Pacific Rise vent site. Mar. Biol. 92, 449–456 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00392504

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00392504

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