Tubeworms

I am reading "Deep-Ocean Journeys" by Cindy Lee Van Dover. Cindy Lee Van Dover was the first female pilot of the human operated vehicle, Alvin. In her book, Cindy not only discusses her triumphs as a pilot, but the beauty of deep sea. She describes many of the organisms seen near hydrothermal vents. One organism that caught my attention the most was the hydrothermal vent tubeworm.

Tubeworms

Scientists hypothesized about continental drift, and found that plate tectonics move, causing the seafloor to spread and hydrothermal vents to form. New land is formed when magma pushes through the lithosphere, while old land is sucked into the subduction zone, where it turns into magma again. Harry Hess called this “geopoetry.” 

In order for a hydrothermal vent to exist there must be a source of energy. Since, hydrothermal vents are in the absence of the sun, organisms rely on heat, which is expelled from underwater volcanoes, for energy. Seawater and earthquakes are also present. Earthquakes cause the plates to shift, allowing magma to reach the surface, while the cold seawater cools the magma, forming sediments.

At the Rose Garden vent, tubeworms can be found that are six feet long. Tubeworms have crimson plumes and long white tubes. They usually colonize together in parallel lines. At the Venture hydrothermal field, tubeworms can get as tall as eight meters. There are so many tubeworms that the land beneath them goes unseen.

Tubeworms have good reflexes and disappear into their tubes when being attacked by hungry crabs. This makes it easier for Alvin to pick up the organism and bring the tubeworm back to the lab.

Once on deck, the tubeworm is pale and gray. The worm has a collar like ring muscle that helps it move, while the tube itself acts as armor. In adult tubeworms there is no mouth, digestive system, guts, or anus. Colleen Cavanaugh found that bacteria produce the nutrients needed for the tubeworm to survive. The bacteria use sulfide produced from the vents to perform chemosynthesis.

When scientists went back to the Rose Garden vent they found that the tubeworms had been replaces by Golden Brown Mussels. They believe that the tubeworm succumbed to the difference in nutrient conditions, allowing the mussels to flourish.

Mussels have a foot that allows them to climb. They go through the cycles of anchoring, bootstrapping, detaching, and reattaching, allowing mussels to move to different spots.

Clambake is a graveyard site where clams used to flourish. Shells are now left behind, and the meat has been eaten by crabs. Scientists think that this vent site could have shut off for one of two reasons. They believe that a vent site can die slowly as conduits choke with minerals or faster as earthquakes modify flow or catastrophes occur.

Nautile

Nautile

The French maritime research institute, Ifremer, owns the deep-sea submersible known as the Nautile. The Nautile is designed for observing and operating at deep depths. The submersible was commissioned in 1984 and since then has logged nearly 1,500 dives from the research vessels Nadir or l'Atalante. The Nautile is capable of operating at depths up to 6 kilometers. The Nautile has many different types of cameras and has a set of twin robotic arms. It is also equipped with acoustic image mapping which lets the ship send footage that they find of underwater objects to the surface. A maximum of three people can be in the Nautile during a dive and the people onboard have a very small three-meter wide cabin. The submarine can carry five hours’ worth of oxygen. The Nautile is capable of traveling at a speed of 1.7 knots since it has four different thruster motors. If necessary, the Nautile can have a tiny robot probe called Robin. This probe can detach from the submarine and can be operated by remote control in order to look at inaccessible areas or dangerous wrecks.

The Nautile is most famous for exploring the Titanic site and searching for and raising other wrecks, but does many other things. The Nautile has assisted other submersibles that were in distress. It explores specific zones collecting samples and manipulating special tools. The Nautile assists in many offshore assignments. It is involved in pipeline layouts and inspections.

The Nautile was responsible for discovering eight species of carnivorous sponges that were near active hydrothermal vents near the East Pacific Rise and of the North Fiji and Lau Basins. Once discovered, the observation from the submersibles was used to describe the sponges’ life conditions. The sponges that were found suggest that there is a lot of diversity among sponges in the deep pacific.

ROPOS

ROPOS

The Canadian Scientific Submersible Facility operates the ROV ROPOS. The CSSF started operating ROPOS in 1996 and purchased a new ROPOS vehicle in 1977.The ISE created the original ROPOS in 1986. Four major research projects use the ROPOS, and include Mid-Ocean Ridges and Volcanoes; Habitat Surveys; Gas Hydrates; and Cabled Seafloor Observatories studies. The ROPOS cruised 21 major trips to the mid- ocean and black- arc ridge and 31 major surveys for ecological and biological purposes. On 13 cruises, the ROPOS found 95 subduction zones and on nine other cruises had 83 cables seafloor observations. In addition, ROPOS performs search and recovery missions. Forty-four marine engineering and recovery dives have occurred because of ROPOS. ROPOS assisted in the investigation of the sinking of the BC Ferry, Queen of the North. 

ROPOS weighs 6000 pounds and has the dimensions five feet wide by nine feet long by seven feet high. This remotely operated vehicle is able to explore depths of 5000 meters and has two modes of operation. It can operate in shallow water or deep water depending on the type of exploration. ROPOS is equipped with two digital video cameras, two manipulator arms, each of which can carry 600 pounds, stainless steel jaws, manipulator feedback sensors, rope cutters, snap hooks, and core tubes, a variable-speed suction sampler and rotating sampling tray; sonar; and a telemetry system. For specific missions, ROPOS can also be equipped with hot-fluid sampler, chemical scanner, tubeworm stainer, rock-coring drill, rock-cutting chainsaw, laser-illuminated, range gated camera, and downward-looking digital scanning sonar.

Work Cited"ROPOS System Overview." Canadian Scientific Submersible Facility. Web. 17 Oct. 2010. .
"NOAA Ocean Explorer: ROPOS." NOAA, Ocean Explorer. Web. 17 Oct. 2010. .

Vampyroteuthis vs. Teuthida

Vampyroteuthis vs. Teuthida

People used to believe that the oceans depths could not sustain life. Sunlight could not penetrate the ocean’s abyss and temperatures were too cold for any organisms to survive. This was proved wrong though, in 1858, when the first trans- Atlantic cable broke. When the cable was retrieved scientists discovered numerous undescribed deep sea organisms. Since then scientists have discovered many more organisms that are similar, yet different, to the organisms found in shallow water. For instance, the vampire squid, Vampyroteuthis is found in deep sea ocean habitats, while the squid, Teuthida is found in shallow water habitats. The Vampyroteuthis and the Teuthida are similar to each other in that they have eyes and arms, yet very different in that they live in different habitats, have different functions for their arms and eyes, and have different defense strategies when in contact with a predator.

The Vampyroteuthis is found in the deep sea habitat. They have very large eyes, which enables it to see well, since light is unable to reach these depths. The vampire squid had 8 long arms that have bioluminescent bacteria attached to them. They also have bioluminescent bacteria near their mantle, which is their mouth, to attract prey. When prey see bright flashy lights they swim toward it hoping that it is food, when in reality they are swimming directly into their predators mouth. They also have the ability to curl their arms around their body, almost as if they were turning themselves inside out. The vampire squid uses this strategy when they feel they are being attacked, in order to confuse their predators.

The Teuthida on the other hand live in shallow water habitats. They are able to locate their prey with sight because light penetrates the ocean at these depths. Their tentacles do not have bioluminescent bacteria on them; however they do have suckers and hooks that are used to catch their prey. Squids also have a beak, which is very sharp which is used to tear the meat off of the fish. When attacked the squid has the ability to squirt ink that confuse the predators while they get away.

The Vampyroteuthis and the Teuthida are similar creatures in that they both have eyes and arms that use used when hunting prey. The vampire squid has bigger eyes in order to locate its prey in the darkness, while the squid had smaller eyes because sunlight is able to penetrate the oceans surfaces. The vampire squid uses bioluminescent bacteria on its arms to help attract its prey, while the squid uses the suckers and hooks on its arm to catch prey. The vampire squid also had the ability to turn itself inside out when being attacked, while the squid is able to squirt out ink.

Work Cited:

"BBC - Wildlife Finder - Squid (videos, Sound Files, Facts, Photos and News Stories)." BBC - Homepage. Web. 03 Oct. 2010. ."National Geographic News: January 2010." Daily Nature and Science News and Headlines | National Geographic News. Web. 03 Oct. 2010. .

The Jet Ski Accident

About a week ago, I was with my marine biology class going on out field study. During our field study we go to Nacote Creek and take boats out to our destination where we sane or troll for fish and other organisms. This was my first time ever going out on the field study so I was really excited. Just imagine two boats filled with 15 people each all wearing orange life jackets. We were headed to long beach island where we learned to sane for fish. If you don't know what saning is, it’s when three people take a net out into the water and walk it back to shore catching all the fish that were in that area of water. You do this multiple times in different areas. The fish that have been caught get sorted, measured, and released.

I was pretty excited to learn how to sane, since I had never done it before. Long Beach Island is about 45 minutes by boat from Nacote creek. The boat ride was pretty boring that is until we pulled up on some metal thing in the water. The sun was shimmering on it and everyone was wondering what it could be. It wasn't until we were on top of it that we had noticed it was an upside down Jet Ski! Can you imagine what we were thinking! We looked all around to see if there was anyone in the water, but we didn't see anything. We finally saw a boat in the distance and drove over too it. It was there that we saw 2 more jet skies, only one of which had a person on it. We all wondered if they had lost someone in the water.

The captain of out boat asked the man on the Jet Ski if he was looking for someone in the water. The man replied, "No, no! He's really hurt! Do you know where we are?" My first thought was how do you drive out to the middle of the ocean and not know where you are. My second though was where the other two guys that weren’t on jet skis were. Our captain called the coast guard and gave them the coordinates to where we were. Within minutes the state police arrive on boat, and the coast guard arrived. We all still wondered where the other 2 people were, because all we could see was the one man on his jet ski. When our boat drifted to another angle we were able to see what was going on perfectly. The man that had been injured was being held out of the water by the second jet skier. Both were holding on to the third jet skiers jet ski.

The coast guard couldn't lift the man on to the boat, so they put the gurney in the water and lifted him up into the boat that way. Our captain said it was okay for us to leave now that the man was being helped so we left. As we were leaving we saw that the firefighters were coming by boat. I didn't know firefighters had boats, but I was glad to see that this man was getting all the help he needed. We kept our radio on the coast guard station to see if there would be any updates on what had happened. The last thing we heard was that the man had to be air lifted to the hospital. Our captain said the only reasons they would have him air lifted were if he was internally bleeding or injured his spine.

I've been trying to find news articles that are related to this incident to see how the accident occurred and what happened to the man. If there is anything we can learn from this is that jet skis can be dangerous if you are not careful, and that you should always know where you are when you are going out into the open water.

I hope that this man will be alright, and if I find any new information I will be sure to post it.

Paleodictyon Nodosum: What could it be?

Paleodictyon Nodosum: What could it be?

The film Volcanoes of the Deep Sea depicts the journey of a geologist on the search for an organism called Paleodictyion Nodosum. The geologist found fossilized burrows in Spain that he believes were formed before the dinosaurs existed. This would mean that Paleodictyon Nodosum survived all the mass extinctions and has become the earth’s very own living fossil

In order to learn more about Paleodictyon Nodosum scientists took the ship, Atlantis, to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge System. They went to the Galapagos rift in the Atlantic Ocean and looked at hydrothermal vents. They found that there was a temperature differential and saw that underwater volcanoes were building elaborate structures. The interior of these structures has a temperature reaching to 700 degrees Fahrenheit and found that organisms were able to survive and live in these extreme conditions.

Geologists could not waste time looking at this spectacular structures when searching for Paleodictyon Nodosum. This is because it takes the submarine, Alvin, two hours to reach the sea floor. The pilot needs at least five hours to take the submarine on a round trip from ship to seafloor and back again. That means that scientists have only four hours to find their specimen and take samples

During their search, scientists found the lost city, which was a sculpture of lime stone that has methane chemistry. This area had been destroyed by lava flow and now flourished with organisms. Bacteria turn the methane into nutrients that shrimp use for food and energy. Scientist founds that shrimp actually have bacteria growing on them. Scientists also found microscopic hyperthermaphyle living in the walls of the largest vent, Houston Astrodome. These organisms are able to survive temperatures of 130 degrees Celsius. These microscopic organisms contain human DNA and hypothesize that life first started in the ocean of hydrothermal vents.

Still in the search for Paleodictyon Nodosum, geologists came across a dead vent. No one knows why vents turn off, but when they do all life dies. The geologists discovered burrow holes like the one found in Spain and this dead vent site. They hypothesize that Paleodictyon Nodosum survived because it is an efficient organisms that was able to survive on the spares nutrients because they farm bacteria. When geologists collected a sample of the burrow and cut into it Paleodictyon Nodosum was nowhere to be found.

I thought the film was interesting when they said scientists hypothesize that life could have started in the deep sea around hydrothermal vents with a single microscopic organism. My least favorite part about the film is that they built up the suspense of finding Paleodictyon Nodosum only to end with the disappointment of not finding the species. However, through my own research I found that Paleodictyon Nodosum is a “bit larger than a poker chip and that it thrives in restricted areas of Atlantic seabed (Broad).” Still Paleodictyon Nodosum has yet to be found. The only trace scientists have of this organism is a “six-sided patterns that look curiously like the hearts of Chinese checkers boards (Broad).” Dr. Seilacher said, “The earliest forms of Paleodictyon dated to the explosion of complex life in the Cambrian period some 500 million years ago. The animals began existence in shallow waters, he added, and gradually expanded into the dark habitats of the deep sea,” leaving the hexagonal tube shapes where ever it existed. The question is are these hexagonal tubes formed by the organisms body itself, or are they tunnel systems the species used to move around. I personally believe that Paleodictyon Nodosum is a worm of some sort and that the hexagonal fossils are the eminence of an elaborate tunnel system they used to get around. I think the tunnels ran so deep into the earth’s surface that they offered shelter and protection from mass extinction.

Broad, William J. "The New York Times Log In." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. 24 Aug. 2009. Web. 3 Oct. 2010.