(This passage is excerpted from an article that was published in 1981.)
The deep sea typically has a sparse fauna dominated by tiny worms and crustaceans, with an even sparser distribution of larger animals. However, near hydrothermal vents, areas of the ocean where warm water emerges from subterranean sources, live remarkable densities of huge clams, blind crabs, and fish.
Most deep-sea faunas rely for food on particulate matter, ultimately derived from photosynthesis, falling from above. The food supplies necessary to sustain the large vent communities, however, must be many times the ordinary fallout. The first reports describing vent faunas proposed two possible sources of nutrition: bacterial chemosynthesis, production of food by bacteria using energy derived from chemical changes, and advection, the drifting of food materials from surrounding regions. Later, evidence in support of the idea of intense local chemosynthesis was accumulated: hydrogen sulfide was found in vent water; many vent-site bacteria were found to be capable of chemosynthesis; and extremely large concentrations of bacteria were found in samples of vent water thought to be pure. This final observation seemed decisive. If such astonishing concentrations of bacteria were typical of vent outflow, then food within the vent would dwarf any contribution from advection. Hence, the widely quoted conclusion was reached that bacterial chemosynthesis provides the foundation for hydrothermal-vent food chains—an exciting prospect because no other communities on Earth are independent of photosynthesis.
There are, however, certain difficulties with this interpretation. For example, some of the large sedentary organisms associated with vents are also found at ordinary deep-sea temperatures many meters from the nearest hydrothermal sources. This suggests that bacterial chemosynthesis is not a sufficient source of nutrition for these creatures. Another difficulty is that similarly dense populations of large deep-sea animals have been found in the proximity of “smokers”—vents where water emerges at temperatures up to 350℃. No bacteria can survive such heat, and no bacteria were found there. Unless smokers are consistently located near more hospitable warm-water vents, chemosynthesis can account for only a fraction of the vent faunas. It is conceivable, however, that these large, sedentary organisms do in fact feed on bacteria that grow in warm-water vents, rise in the vent water, and then rain in peripheral areas to nourish animals living some distance from the warm-water vents.
Nonetheless advection is a more likely alternative food source. Research has demonstrated that advective flow, which originates near the surface of the ocean where suspended particulate matter accumulates, transports some of that matter and water to the vents. Estimates suggest that for every cubic meter of vent discharge, 350 milligrams of particulate organic material would be advected into the vent area. Thus, for an average-sized vent, advection could provide more than 30 kilograms of potential food per day. In addition, it is likely that small live animals in the advected water might be killed or stunned by thermal and/or chemical shock, thereby contributing to the food supply of vents.
