Organisms of the DEEP OCEANHydrothermal vents on the ocean floorsupport a diversified and vibrantecosystem.

The energy to run the ecosystem doesnot come from the sun, but from chemical energy released from earth.

Hydrothermal vents (“Black Smokers”)

The PRODUCERS in this food chainare not green plants, but endosymbiotic bacteria living within the tissue of tube worms and clams.

Endo= within, insideSymbiotic= working for the benefit of both.

The endosymbiotic bacteria,Arcobacter sulfidicus, uses Chemosynthesis rather than Photosynthesis as their means of trapping and converting energy.Chemosynthesis basically means“energy from chemicals”

Some Deep Sea ConsumersVent Tubeworms,Riftia pachyptilaThese worms gettheir energy fromthe bacteria living in their tissues.

A colony of tube worms and clams

The grappling arm from Alvin takesa sample of tubeworms.

Pompeii worms: They attach themselves to black smokers. This worm is known as the most heat tolerant complex animal. It's able to survive over 150 degrees Celsius. They are pale grey with hairy backs. These hairs are colonies of bacteria. The bacteria feed on mucus from the worms back.

Giant Vent Clams (Calyptogena magnifica) A filter feeder,it also has the bacteria within itsbody, allowing it to feed and grow very rapidly.

The Vent Crab, Bythograea thermydron

Consumer, eats vent worms, as well as vent clams and any fishit can catch.

About 5 inches across in size.

A smallarmy ofcrabs covers the sea floor

A vent crab dining on tube worms.

The Pink Eelpout Fish, Melanostigma pammelasConsumer, eats vent worms and other organismsSize: up to 2 feetin length

Small eelpouts among the tube worms on a vent.

Spiny Spider Crab,Maja brachydactylaConsumer, eatsVent worms,clams, and fish

Size, up to 3 feetacross

Spider crabs hunting on a bed ofmussels and clams.

Lavender Octopus (Graneldone sp.)A predator,it eats crabs,clams, andfish.

Deep Sea Technology and Pioneers

-H.M.S Challenger (1872-1876): oneof the first true marine expeditions, the Challenger expedition mappedmajor sea floor features by using aweighted wire to measure depth.-the expedition also discovered more than 4,700 new species.

The deepest dive recorded by a skin diveris 127 meters (417 feet).The deepest dive recorded by a scuba diveris 282 meters (925 feet).

Deep Dives

Special hardened “Jim Suits” allow divers to reach 600 meters (2000 feet).

Inventor SalimJoseph Peress withHis diving suit “Tritonia” (1937).This design led to the development of deep diving suitscalled “Jim Suits”.

William Beebe and Otis Barton (1934):Descended to a depth of 1000 meters (3,280 feet) in a steel chamber called abathysphere. -the bathysphere was lowered into thewater on a cable, and was not free floating.-messages were passed to the surface using a telephone and a wire.

Auguste Piccard (1948): tested a vesselcapable of much deeper dives. -he called his vessel a bathyscaphe,Greek for “Deep Ship”-the FNRS 2 dove to a depth of 1402 m(4600 ft), but was damaged by waves at the surface.

Jacques Piccard (1950): with his father, he designed and built the bathyscapheTrieste. -Trieste dove to a depth of 3,139 meters(10,300 ft) in trials.

Jacques Piccard and Lt. Donald Walsh(1960): dove in Trieste to a record depthof 10,915 meters (35,810 feet).-dive took place in the Challenger Deep,an area in the Mariana Trench, the deepest point in Earth’s oceans.

ChallengerDeep, siteof the 1960 Trieste dive.

Alvin (1964) : Operated by the WoodsHole Oceanographic Institution, Alvin made its first dive in 1964.-Alvin has conducted over 3700 dive missions since it was built, including divesto H.M.S. Titanic in the late 80’s. -Alvin is a DSRV, or Deep SubmergenceResearch Vehicle

Alvins dimensions: 23 feet long, 12 feet high. The crew rides within a 6 foot diameter sphere made of titanium. Alvin is capable of diving to a depth of4,500 meters (14,764 feet) . -a typical dive takes over 8 hours to complete.

The titanium sphere from Alvin removedfor maintenance.

Note therelative size of the men andthe sphere!