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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?
  1. 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.

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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.

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Nature 567, 182-184 (2019)

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

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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.

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