Microbes and Mud Volcanoes
Microbial communities have an amazing ability to survive in many different ecological environments. Researchers are just beginning to understand the complexities and capacities of microbiome to exist in seemingly uninhabitable environs, and quickly adapt to changes in their surroundings. Mud volcanoes are one such environment in which these microorganisms survive, and even thrive. They are not true magmatic volcanoes, but mud domes formed from a collection of liquids and gases. When they erupt, they emit predominantly methane, as well as other gases such as carbon dioxide.
A recent poster-prize winner for the International Subsurface Microbiology Conference conducted research into the microbial communities living within the Venere mud volcano off the coast of Calabria, Italy. This volcano exits several kilometres beneath the seafloor, emitting gases and liquids and – within them – microbial communities. Scientists are just beginning to understand how these microorganisms adapt from a subsurface environment to taking on sea water, and what kinds of biogeochemical cycles they could mediate. So far, research suggests that the sub seabed microbiome studied at Venere are distinct from microorganisms at many other environments previously described.
Image credit: Scott Klasek being awarded the FEMS Microbiology Ecology ISSM Poster Prize by Murray Close (ESR), ISSM conference chair. Photograph by Brent Gilpin (ESR), used with permission.
