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InterRidge Fellows
Launching Nautile from R/V Atalante
at EPR 9°N onboard the French R/V Atalante (Chief Scientist Prof.
Nadine Le Bris). My current PhD thesis is focused on shallow
hydrothermal vents and this was my first oceanographic expedition
with the use of a deep submergence vehicle, and my first experience
with deep-sea hydrothermal vents. Scientists and crew onboard were
welcoming and, for a first timer like me, the whole experience was
exciting and extremely interesting. The work onboard was
informative and the Nautile dives were exceptional. The expedition
was a success and, with Prof. Vetriani, we obtained numerous
samples that I will analyze whilst at Rutgers within the IR fellowship.
I collected enrichment for the isolation of prokaryotes from
different hydrothermal vent samples and participated in two highpressure
experiments involving the episymbions of Alvinella
pompejana. I would like to thank Prof. Vetriani for the great
opportunity to participate in the cruise, Prof. Le Bris for hosting me
onboard and InterRidge for its efforts in keeping the fellowship
programme running every year.
processed and stored under low oxygen conditions prior to being
shipped frozen at the end of the cruise. The nature of these unique
and highly novel samples will permit, at a minimum, an examination
of the quantities of particulate organic matter present in the initial
stages of hydrothermal plume formation, and hopefully,
compositional information (sulfur to carbon ratios), should
sufficient quantities of organic matter be present. Thus, the sample
collection portion of this project was extremely successful, and
processing and analysis of the samples will now proceed at the
MARUM Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, University of
Bremen, with results expected Summer 2012.
Eoghan Reeves
As part of my InterRidge Postdoctoral Fellowship award, I am
collaborating with hydrothermal plume researchers Dr. John 'Chip'
Breier and Dr. Chris German (WHOI), as well as Dr. Sarah Bennett
(NASA/JPL), to assess the nature of particulate organic matter
forming in ascending hydrothermal plumes. Specifically, the award
will allow me to examine if this organic matter incorporates
hydrothermal sulfide, which would have implications for the
sequestration of trace metals (such as iron) and their delivery to the
deep ocean.
While the award was originally intended to fund only sample
shipment costs and analysis, with additional funds from my
institution (MARUM) I was very fortunate to be able to participate
in the January 2012 R/V Atlantis and ROV Jason II expedition to
hydrothermal systems in the Mid-Cayman Rise and Cayman Trough,
where, together with Drs. Breier and Bennett, we planned to collect
plume particulates using the WHOI SUspended Particulate Rosette
(SUPR) sampler. The SUPR device is deployed on the ROV Jason
and pumps plume water through filters to collect samples of
particles at precise points in the rising hydrothermal plume, which
is visible to the ROV and scientists. A successful vertical transect of
6 filtered samples was collected above high temperature Beebe vents
at the ~5 km deep Piccard vent site, and these samples were
The WHOI SUspended Particulate Rosette (SUPR) sampler fitted
to the ROV Jason II, with recently collected samples of
hydrothermal plume particles (visible) from the Cayman Trough
(Photo by Julia DeMarines).
An additional fortuitous aspect of my participation in the expedition
was to continue collaboration with my former advisor from graduate
school at WHOI, Dr. Jeff Seewald. Given that SUPR sampling was
limited to certain dives on the cruise, the remainder of my time
aboard Atlantis was spent assisting Jeff ’s hydrothermal fluid
sampling team. I was able to continue my research into another
aspect of organic sulfur chemistry in hydrothermal systems,
specifically measuring the abundance of methanethiol (methyl
mercaptan) at these novel vent sites. Key datasets on methanethiol
were collected from both the Von Damm and Piccard vent sites and
will soon be submitted for publication.
INTERRIDGE NEWS 19 VOL.21, 2012