[en] Alvinella pompejana and Alvinella caudata live in organic tubes on active sulphide chimney walls at deep-sea hydrothermal vents. These polychaete annelids are exposed to extreme thermal and chemical gradients and to intense mineral precipitation. This work points out that mineral particles associated with Pompeii worm (A. pompejana and A. caudata) tubes constitute useful markers for evaluating the chemical characteristics of their micro-environment. The minerals associated with these worm tubes were analysed on samples recovered from an experimental alvinellid colony, at different locations in the vent fluid-seawater interface. Inhabited tubes from the most upper and lower parts of the colony were analysed by light and electron microscopies, X-ray microanalysis and X-ray diffraction. A change was observed from a Fe-Zn-S mineral assemblage to a Zn-S assemblage at the millimeter scale from the outer to the inner face of a tube. A similar gradient in proportions of minerals was observed at a decimeter scale from the lower to the upper part of the colony. The marcasitc/pyrite ratio of iron disulphides also displays a steep decrease along the few millimeters adjacent to the external tube surface. The occurrence of these gradients indicates that the microenvironment within the tube differs from that outside the tube, and suggests that the tube wall acts as an efficient barrier to the external environment. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Disciplines :
Earth sciences & physical geography
Author, co-author :
Zbinden, M.
Le Bris, N.
Compère, Philippe ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département des sciences et gestion de l'environnement > Département des sciences et gestion de l'environnement
Martinez, I.
Guyot, F.
Gaill, F.
Language :
English
Title :
Mineralogical gradients associated with alvinellids at deep-sea hydrothermal vents
Publication date :
February 2003
Journal title :
Deep-Sea Research. Part I, Oceanographic Research Papers
ISSN :
0967-0637
eISSN :
1879-0119
Publisher :
Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd, Oxford, United Kingdom
Chevaldonné, P., Jollivet, D., 1993. Videoscopic study of deep-sea hydrothermal vent alvinellid polychaete populations: biomass estimation and behaviour. Marine Ecology Progress Series 95, 251-262.
Chevaldonné, P., Fischer, C., Childress, J., Desbruyères, D., Jollivet, D., Zal, F., Toulmond, A., 2000. Thermotolerance and the "Pompeii worms". Marine Ecology Progress Series 208, 293-295.
Desbruyères, D., Chevaldonné, P., Alayse, A.M., Jollivet, D., Lallier, F., Jouin-Toulmond, C., Zal, F., Sarradin, P.M., Cosson, R., Caprais, J.C., Arndt, C., O'Brien, J., Guezennec, J., Hourdez, S., Riso, R., Gaill, F., Laubier, L., Toulmond, A., 1998. Biology and ecology of the "Pompeii worm" (Alvinella pompejana Desbruyères and Laubier), a normal dweller of an extreme deep-sea environment: a synthesis of current knowledge and recent developments. Deep-Sea Research II 45, 383-422.
Di Meo, C., Wakefield, J., Cary, S., 1999. A new device for sampling small volumes of water from marine microenvironments. Deep-Sea Research I 46, 1279-1287.
Fouquet, Y., Auclair, G., Cambon, P., Etoubleau, J., 1988. Geological setting and mineralogical and geochemical investigations on sulfide deposits near 13°N on the east Pacific rise. Marine Geology 84, 145-178.
Gaill, F., Hunt, S., 1986. Tubes of deep sea hydrothermal vent worms Riftia pachyptila (Vestimentifera) and Alvinella pompejana (Annelida). Marine Ecology Progress Series 34, 267-274.
Gaill, F., Hunt, S., 1991. The biology of Annelid worms from high temperature hydrothermal vent regions. Reviews in Aquatic Sciences 4, 107-137.
Gaill, F., Felbeck, H., Desbruyères, D., Lallier, F., Toulmond, A., Alayse, A.M., Briand, P., Brulport, J., Caprais, J.C., Chevaldonné, P., Coail, Y., Cosson, R., Crassous, P., Delachambre, J., Durif, C., Echardour, L., Hervé, G., Hourdez, S., Jollivet, D., Kerdoncuff, J., Kripounoff, A., Lechaire, J.P., Pruski, A., Ravaux, J., Sarradin, P.M., Shillito, B., Toullec, J.Y., Arndt, C., Fisher, C., Lutz, R., Childress, J., 1996. Hot 96. Inter Ridge News 5, 22-24.
Hannington, M.D., Jonasson, I.R., Herzig, P.M., Petersen, S., 1995. Physical and chemical processes of seafloor mineralization at mid-ocean ridges. In: Thomson, R.E. (Ed.), Seafloor Hydrothermal Systems: Physical, Chemical, Biological and Geological Interactions, Vol. 91. AGU, Washington, DC, pp. 115-157.
Janecky, D., Seyfried, W., 1984. Formation of massive sulphide deposits on oceanic ridge crests: incremental reaction models for mixing between hydrothermal solutions and seawater. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 48, 2723-2738.
Juniper, S., Jonasson, I., Tunnicliffe, V., Southward, A., 1992. Influence of a tube-building polychaete on hydrothermal chimney mineralisation. Geology 20, 895-898.
Le Bris, N., Sarradin, P., Pennec, S., 2001. A new deep-sea probe for in situ pH measurement in the environment of hydrothermal vent biological communities. Deep-Sea Research I 48, 1941-1951.
Luther III, G., Rozan, T., Taillefert, M., Nuzzio, D., Di Meo, C., Shank, T., Lutz, R., Cary, S., 2001. Chemical speciation drives hydrothermal vent ecology. Nature 410, 813-816.
Murowchick, J., Barnes, H., 1986. Marcasite precipitation from hydrothermal solutions. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 50, 2615-2629.
Schoonen, M., Barnes, H., 1991. Reactions forming pyrite and marcasite from solution: II. Via FeS precursors below 100°C. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 55, 1505-1514.
Seyfried, W., Mottl, M., 1995. Geologic setting and chemistry of deep sea hydrothermal vents. In: Karl, D. (Ed.), The microbiology of deep sea hydrothermal vents. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, pp. 1-34.
Shillito, B., Jollivet, D., Sarradin, P.M., Rodier, P., Lallier, F., Desbruyères, D., Gaill, F., 2001. Temperature resistance of Hesiolyra bergi, a polychaetous annelid living on deep-sea vent smoker walls. Marine Ecology Progress Series 216, 141-149.
Taylor, C., Wirsen, C., Gaill, F., 1999. Rapid microbial production of filamentous sulphur mats at hydrothermal vents. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 65, 2253-2255.
Tivey, M., 1995. Modeling chimney growth and associated fluid flow at seafloor hydrothermal vent sites. In: Humphris, S., Zierenberg, R., Mullineaux, L., Thomson, R. (Eds.), Seafloor Hydrothermal Systems: Physical, Chemical, Biological and Geological Interactions. American Geophysical Union, Washington, DC, pp. 158-177.
Zbinden, M., Martinez, I., Guyot, F., Cambon-Bonavita, M., Gaill, F., 2001. Zinc-iron sulphide mineralisation in tubes of hydrothermal vent worms. European Journal of Mineralogy 13, 653-658.