Vent and Seep Biota
In the extreme environments around hydrothermal vents researchers are discovering specialised communities of unusual organisms, most of which have not been found anywhere else on earth.
To learn more about the research activity in this theme contact: Hans Tore Rapp.
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About Vent and Seep Biota
Because these locations are often in environments where it is not possible to use photosynthesis to harness the energy from the sun, vent communities are based around specialised bacteria that are able to use chemical processes to generate the energy required to make biological compounds.
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Future directions (from 2011)
Research in the years to come will continue to be focused on the fauna of hydrothermal vents, cold seeps and organic falls in the NE Atlantic and Arctic Oceans.
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Top Cited Authors
Three CGB researchers are among the authors of a top 50 most cited article.
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Research summary 2007-2010
Research in this area has had the best possible start with the discovery of deep-sea hydrothermal vents in the Arctic; a vent system hosting a unique and basically unexplored fauna. The discovery and sampling of these new arctic vent fields provide unique data to further understand the migration of vent organisms and interactions between different deep-sea chemosynthetic environments.
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In 2009
While the vent fauna at Loki’s Castle is mainly locally derived, it has a higher degree of similarity to the vent sites in the NW Pacific than to those found further south in the Atlantic!