Editor's Summary
23 February 2006
The lost garden
The first hydrothermal vent known to science was discovered as late as 1979. Called the Rose Garden to mark the floral appearance of the tubeworms wafting in the hydrothermal fluids coming through cracks in the sea-bed lava, it was found off the Galapagos Islands but can be seen no longer. Things can move fast on the ocean bed, and it is now paved over. But in the past 25 years hydrothermal vents have been found in all manner of places, and variations in warmth, depth and chemistry have fostered remarkably varied lifeforms in the resulting vent ecosystems. Christina Reed reports on some of the latest discoveries.
News Feature: Marine science: Boiling points
Teams of researchers are finding vents in ocean floors around the globe. Christina Reed follows the hunt for these extreme ecosystems.
doi:10.1038/439905a
