Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI, USA ; Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI, USA ; Center for Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics, University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
Front Microbiol. 2013 May 21;4:124. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2013.00124. eCollection 2013.
Hydrothermal plumes are an important yet understudied component of deep-sea vent microbial ecosystems. The significance of plume microbial processes can be appreciated from three perspectives: (1) mediation of plume biogeochemistry, (2) dispersal of seafloor hydrothermal vent microbes between vents sites, (3) as natural laboratories for understanding the ecology, physiology, and function of microbial groups that are distributed throughout the pelagic deep sea. Plume microbiology has been largely neglected in recent years, especially relative to the extensive research conducted on seafloor and subseafloor systems. Rapidly advancing technologies for investigating microbial communities provide new motivation and opportunities to characterize this important microbial habitat. Here we briefly highlight microbial contributions to plume and broader ocean (bio)geochemistry and review recent work to illustrate the ecological and biogeographic linkages between plumes, seafloor vent habitats, and other marine habitats such as oxygen minimum zones (OMZs), cold seeps, and oil spills. 16S rRNA gene surveys and metagenomic/-transcriptomic data from plumes point to dominant microbial populations, genes, and functions that are also operative in OMZs (SUP05, ammonia-oxidizing Archaea, and SAR324 Deltaproteobacteria) and hydrocarbon-rich environments (methanotrophs). Plume microbial communities are distinct from those on the seafloor or in the subsurface but contain some signatures of these habitats, consistent with the notion that plumes are potential vectors for dispersal of microorganisms between seafloor vent sites. Finally, we put forward three pressing questions for the future of deep-sea hydrothermal plume research and consider interactions between vents and oceans on global scales.
热液喷口是深海喷口微生物生态系统中一个重要但研究不足的组成部分。从三个方面可以看出喷口微生物过程的重要性：（1）调节喷口生物地球化学，（2）在喷口之间分散海底热液喷口微生物，（3）作为理解分布在整个深海浮游带的微生物群体的生态学、生理学和功能的天然实验室。近年来，喷口微生物学在很大程度上被忽视了，尤其是相对于对海底和海底系统进行的广泛研究。用于研究微生物群落的快速发展技术为描述这一重要微生物栖息地提供了新的动力和机会。在这里，我们简要强调了微生物对喷口和更广泛海洋（生物）地球化学的贡献，并回顾了最近的工作，以说明喷口、海底喷口栖息地与其他海洋栖息地（如缺氧区、冷渗流和溢油）之间的生态和生物地理联系。来自喷口的 16S rRNA 基因调查和宏基因组/转录组数据表明，在缺氧区（SUP05、氨氧化古菌和 SAR324δ变形菌）和富含碳氢化合物的环境中，也存在着占主导地位的微生物种群、基因和功能。喷口微生物群落与海底或地下的微生物群落不同，但包含了这些栖息地的一些特征，这与喷口是微生物在海底喷口之间扩散的潜在载体的观点一致。最后，我们提出了深海热液喷口研究的三个紧迫问题，并考虑了喷口和海洋在全球范围内的相互作用。
