现代海底热液微生物群落及其地质意义

现代海底黑烟囱周围生活着密集的生物群落，它们一般以黑烟囱喷口为中心向四周呈带状分布。热液生态系统的初级生产者嗜热细菌和古细菌，其初级能量来源于地球深部上升喷出流体提供的化学能，它们氧化热液中硫化物（如H2S、FeS）和甲烷获得能量，还原CO2制造有机物，而不依赖光合作用。作为食物链源头的细菌类和古细菌类与其他动物有2种生存关系:①直接作为其他动物的食物；②与其他动物之间的共生关系。这些嗜热微生物不仅依存于海底热液活动,同时在热液成矿作用中起着重要的作用。它们可能来源于地下深部生物圈，海底黑烟囱是研究深部生物圈的窗口，对其周围嗜热微生物的研究，对于理解生命起源和生物成矿都有重要的理论意义。

RESEARCH ADVANCES IN HYDROTHERMAL VENT MICROBIAL COMMUNITIES AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE FOR GEOLOGY

Hydrothermal communities in deep seafloor live around Black Smoker sites. The primary producers of hydrothermal ecosystems are thermophiles and archaea. Bacteria convert chemicals (from the sulfur rich fluid spewed out of vents) to energy, in a process called chemosynthesis. They get energy depending on the oxidation of sulfides (H2S, FeS2) and methane and the reduction of carbon dioxide, instead of photosynthesis. There are two kinds of relationship between thermophiles and other animals. Other animals eat thermophiles or thermophiles exist in a symbiotic relationship with vent animals. Thermophiles not only depend on the deep sea hydrothermal activities, but also play an important role of hydrothermal mineralization. The source of them is likely to be subsurface biosphere. Black smokers could be “windows to a deep biosphere”, which has crucial implication for the research of thermophiles and the understanding of astrobiology and the origin of life.