INTRODUCTION | LIFE IN EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS | EXTRATERRESTRIAL LIFE? | VENTS AROUND THE WORLD | DEEP-SEA OBSERVATORIES
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Why do different kinds of animals live at vents in different oceans? Why are clams and tubeworms seen so commonly at Pacific Ocean vents, but not seen on the northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge? Why are shrimp found teeming around Atlantic vent sites, but only in small numbers at Pacific vents?
The same sort of thing happens on land, too. Koalas and kangaroos live only in Australia. That’s because animals on Australia became separated from other animal populations when Australia separated from an ancient supercontinent and became an island. Did something similar happen on the bottom of the ocean? Did seafloor spreading and the creation of mid-ocean ridges separate animal populations and cause them to evolve differently? Was the evolution of vent animals shaped by the movement of continents, which may have cut off connections between oceans and changed ocean circulation patterns?
On land, a variety of factors have created the unique ecosystems in Africa and the Amazonian rain forest. Do subtle differences in the chemistry of vent fluids, or seafloor rocks, or some other factors create different vent ecosystems?
The “biogeography” of vents—that is, where and why animal populations are distributed around the world’s oceans—remains a great mystery.
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