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Centre for Deep Sea Research

HyPOD

Hydrothermal Production of Organic molecules: carbon transformation and Decomposition in ocean crust fluids

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Funded by the Norwegian Research Council through the FRINATEK program (2019-2023)  

The HyPOD project aims to shed light on how organic molecules form in hydrothermal fluids emanating from hot springs on the seafloor.   

Seafloor hydrothermal systems hosts a variety of marine life. The cornerstone of marine life in these hostile systems spewing extremely hot, reducing fluids onto the seafloor are microorganisms, which comprise the base of the hydrothermal food chain. Microbes living around hot springs on the seafloor are hypothesized to have emerged as the first life on Earth, but how they could have developed in the first place is still poorly understood.  

Organic molecules, the building blocks of life, are present in hydrothermal fluids, but we are not entirely sure how they form. Various processes are viable candidates, such as abiotic synthesis (non-biological transformation of carbon dioxide), and thermal breakdown of pre-existing organic carbon such as microbial or dissolved organic matter. Both processes produce organic molecules, but they have not been studied in detail under conditions prevalent in hot springs on the seafloor.  

We aim to change that by conducting hydrothermal experiments to simulate these high temperature-pressure conditions and investigate the formation of organic molecules. Comparing the results of laboratory experiments to natural hydrothermal fluid samples from various hot spring systems will test how realistic the findings are. In doing so, we hope to much better understand the formation of organic molecules in hydrothermal fluids and thus carbon cycling in volcanic oceanic crust. Improving this understanding is necessary to define energy sources for microbes in hot springs; this is relevant for future biotech applications of microbial life. Conducting this much-needed research will also contribute to the origin of life debate, we will get a step closer to deciphering the potential of life to start in oceans on other celestial bodies in our solar system, such as Enceladus.     

To read more about the HyPOD project, please visit 

https://prosjektbanken.forskningsradet.no/#/project/NFR/287364.   

Connected persons:  

Eoghan P. Reeves  

Ida Helene Steen  

Thomas Viflot 

T. Dittmar (Uni. Oldenburg)  

F. Schubotz (Uni. Bremen)