Workshop Report - Ridge 2000 Program

Strategy
Biological studies will emphasize four distinct scales of
observation, sampling, and experimentation: (1) point scale of
individual vents, (2) localized scale of vent fields,
(3) regional scale of thousands of kilometers, and (4) global
scale comparing regions.
Required Techniques
To achieve the listed objectives, the development and
improvement of the following techniques are among the
prerequisites:
.!D. situ: (1) Instrumentation for chemical analyses of fluids
on both instantaneous and long-term scales. (2) Instrumentation
for measurement of microbial activity. (3) Measurements of
animal growth rates and of soft and hard-part deterioration.
(4) Organism manipulations for habitat alteration and colonization
experiments. (5) A vehicle (remote or manned) available
for, and capable of. repeated and non-disruptive visits to the
same area. (6) Large- and small-scale photographic mapping.
Laboratory: (1) Probes of the genetic make-up of organisms
(ribosomal ribonucleic acid sequencing, isoenzyme assays,
mitochondrial DNA comparisons, and DNA hybridization).
(2) Equipment for maintenance of animals under simulated vent
conditions. (3) Equipment for measurements of metabolism of
microbes and animals under simulated vent conditions. 4. Image
processing applied to deep-ocean photographs.
Long-term: (1) Long-term bottom stations for continuous
observations of specific sites. (2) Mechanisms for detecting
biological markers in hydrothermal plumes. (3) Mechanisms for
detecting subsurface life.
Summary
The chemosynthetically driven ecosystems of ridge crests can
only be studied effectively if the physiologies, biochemistries,
distributions, ecologies, and evolutionary histories of the
microbial and animal species are linked to geochemical and
geophysical processes. Basic understanding of the organismal
adaptions enabling the tolerance and the exploitation of the
vent waters, and comprehension of the way temporal and spatial
variability in vent flow affect bacterial and animal life are
the chief goals of the vent biology program. These goals can
only be realized through complementary and collaborative programs
in physical oceanography, geochemistry, and geophysics.
Conversely, the success of these other, non-biological programs
necessitates inputs from the biological studies, such as
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