Forty years of fathoming life in hot springs on the ocean floor

Van Dover, Cindy Lee

doi:10.1038/d41586-019-00728-3

NEWS AND VIEWS
04 March 2019

Forty years of fathoming life in hot springs on the ocean floor

Ocean-floor hot springs teeming with animal life were reported 40 years ago. How has knowledge of life thriving in such extreme conditions grown since then, and what challenges remain for exploration and conservation down there?

Cindy Lee Van Dover⁰

Cindy Lee Van Dover
1. Cindy Lee Van Dover is in the Division of Marine Science and Conservation, Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University Marine Laboratory, Beaufort, North Carolina 28516, USA.
View author publications

You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Access through your institution

Buy or subscribe

Four decades have passed since vibrant clusters of giant, metre-long tubeworms, discovered at hot springs on the ocean floor by Corliss et al.¹, were reported in Science. Until then, the ocean floor was considered to be more like a desert than an oasis.

Access options

Access through your institution

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 567, 182-184 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-00728-3

References

Corliss, J. B. et al. Science 203, 1073–1083 (1979).
Article PubMed Google Scholar
Sclater, J. G. & Klitgord, K. D. J. Geophys. Res. 78, 6951–6975 (1973).
Article Google Scholar
Cavanaugh, C. M., McKiness, Z. P., Newton, I. L. G. & Stewart, F. J. in The Prokaryotes Vol. 1 (eds Dworkin, M., Falkow, S., Rosenberg, E., Schleifer, K.-H. & Stackebrandt, E.) 475–507 (Springer, 2006).
Google Scholar
Spiess, F. N. et al. Science 207, 1421–1433 (1980).
Article PubMed Google Scholar
Van Dover, C. L. et al. Mar. Policy 90, 20–28 (2018).
Article Google Scholar
Karson, J. A., Kelley, D. S., Fornari, D. J., Perfit, M. R. & Shank, T. M. Discovering the Deep: A Photographic Atlas of the Seafloor and Ocean Crust (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2015).
Google Scholar
Rogers, A. D. et al. PLoS Biol. 10, e1001234 (2012).
Article PubMed Google Scholar
Ravaux, J. et al. PLoS ONE 8, e64074 (2013).
Article PubMed Google Scholar
Kashefi, K. & Lovley, D. R. Science 301, 934 (2003).
Article PubMed Google Scholar
Van Dover, C. L., Szuts, E. Z., Chamberlain, S. C. & Cann, J. R. Nature 337, 458–460 (1989).
Article PubMed Google Scholar
Thatje, S., Marsh, L., Roterman, C. N., Mavrogordato, M. N. & Linse, K. PLoS ONE 10, e0127621 (2015).
Article PubMed Google Scholar
Yao, H. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 107, 987–992 (2010).
Article PubMed Google Scholar
Martin, W., Baross, J., Kelley, D. & Russell, M. J. Nature Rev. Microbiol. 6, 805–814 (2008).
Article PubMed Google Scholar
Barge, L. M. & White, L. M. Astrobiology 17, 820–833 (2017).
Article PubMed Google Scholar
Bellingham, J. G. & Rajan, K. Science 318, 1098–1102 (2007).
Article PubMed Google Scholar
Liu, S., Hu, J., Zhang, R., Dai, Y. & Yang, H. Chin. J. Mech. Eng. 29, 863–870 (2016).
Article Google Scholar

Download references

Reprints and permissions

Competing Interests

The author has been an unpaid advisory expert for the International Seabed Authority. She has received funding previously from the Pew Charitable Trust and from Nautilus Minerals, and currently receives funding from the Global Ocean Biodiversity Initiative.

Subjects

Latest on:

Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is ‘transforming’ because of repeated coral bleaching

News 19 APR 24

The surprising history of the Southern Ocean’s super current

News & Views 27 MAR 24

Deep-sea mining plans should not be rushed

Editorial 26 MAR 24

Hybrid speciation driven by multilocus introgression of ecological traits

Article 17 APR 24

FSC-certified forest management benefits large mammals compared to non-FSC

Article 10 APR 24

Jurassic shuotheriids show earliest dental diversification of mammaliaforms

Article 03 APR 24

Jobs

Postdoctoral Fellow

The Dubal Laboratory of Neuroscience and Aging at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) seeks postdoctoral fellows to investigate the ...

San Francisco, California

University of California, San Francsico
Postdoctoral Associate

Houston, Texas (US)

Baylor College of Medicine (BCM)
Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Description Applications are invited for a postdoctoral fellow position at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Sinai Health, to participate...

Toronto (City), Ontario (CA)

Sinai Health
Postdoctoral Research Associate - Surgery

Memphis, Tennessee

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (St. Jude)
Open Rank Faculty Position in Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics

The Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Genetics (www.virginia.edu/bmg) and the University of Virginia Cancer Center

Charlottesville, Virginia

Biochemistry & Molecular Genetics

[1] Corliss, J. B. et al. Science 203, 1073–1083 (1979).
Article PubMed Google Scholar

[2] Sclater, J. G. & Klitgord, K. D. J. Geophys. Res. 78, 6951–6975 (1973).
Article Google Scholar

[3] Cavanaugh, C. M., McKiness, Z. P., Newton, I. L. G. & Stewart, F. J. in The Prokaryotes Vol. 1 (eds Dworkin, M., Falkow, S., Rosenberg, E., Schleifer, K.-H. & Stackebrandt, E.) 475–507 (Springer, 2006).
Google Scholar

[4] Spiess, F. N. et al. Science 207, 1421–1433 (1980).
Article PubMed Google Scholar

[5] Van Dover, C. L. et al. Mar. Policy 90, 20–28 (2018).
Article Google Scholar

[6] Karson, J. A., Kelley, D. S., Fornari, D. J., Perfit, M. R. & Shank, T. M. Discovering the Deep: A Photographic Atlas of the Seafloor and Ocean Crust (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2015).
Google Scholar

[7] Rogers, A. D. et al. PLoS Biol. 10, e1001234 (2012).
Article PubMed Google Scholar

[8] Ravaux, J. et al. PLoS ONE 8, e64074 (2013).
Article PubMed Google Scholar

[9] Kashefi, K. & Lovley, D. R. Science 301, 934 (2003).
Article PubMed Google Scholar

[10] Van Dover, C. L., Szuts, E. Z., Chamberlain, S. C. & Cann, J. R. Nature 337, 458–460 (1989).
Article PubMed Google Scholar

[11] Thatje, S., Marsh, L., Roterman, C. N., Mavrogordato, M. N. & Linse, K. PLoS ONE 10, e0127621 (2015).
Article PubMed Google Scholar

[12] Yao, H. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 107, 987–992 (2010).
Article PubMed Google Scholar

[13] Martin, W., Baross, J., Kelley, D. & Russell, M. J. Nature Rev. Microbiol. 6, 805–814 (2008).
Article PubMed Google Scholar

[14] Barge, L. M. & White, L. M. Astrobiology 17, 820–833 (2017).
Article PubMed Google Scholar

[15] Bellingham, J. G. & Rajan, K. Science 318, 1098–1102 (2007).
Article PubMed Google Scholar

[16] Liu, S., Hu, J., Zhang, R., Dai, Y. & Yang, H. Chin. J. Mech. Eng. 29, 863–870 (2016).
Article Google Scholar

Forty years of fathoming life in hot springs on the ocean floor

Access options

References

Competing Interests

Subjects

Latest on:

Jobs

Postdoctoral Fellow

Postdoctoral Associate

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Postdoctoral Research Associate - Surgery

Open Rank Faculty Position in Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics

Search

Quick links