Hydrothermal plumes as hotspots for deep-ocean heterotrophic microbial biomass production

Cécile Cathalot (), Erwan G. Roussel, Antoine Perhirin, Vanessa Creff, Jean-Pierre Donval, Vivien Guyader, Guillaume Roullet, Jonathan Gula, Christian Tamburini, Marc Garel, Anne Godfroy and Pierre-Marie Sarradin
Additional contact information
Cécile Cathalot: Laboratoire Cycles Géochimiques et ressources – LCG/GM/REM, Ifremer
Erwan G. Roussel: Laboratoire de Microbiologie des Environnements Extrêmes – LMEE/EEP/REM, Ifremer
Antoine Perhirin: Laboratoire Environnement Profond – LEP/EEP/REM, IFREMER
Vanessa Creff: Laboratoire de Microbiologie des Environnements Extrêmes – LMEE/EEP/REM, Ifremer
Jean-Pierre Donval: Laboratoire Cycles Géochimiques et ressources – LCG/GM/REM, Ifremer
Vivien Guyader: Laboratoire Cycles Géochimiques et ressources – LCG/GM/REM, Ifremer
Guillaume Roullet: Laboratoire d’Océanographie Physique et Spatiale (LOPS), IUEM
Jonathan Gula: Laboratoire d’Océanographie Physique et Spatiale (LOPS), IUEM
Christian Tamburini: Aix-Marseille Univ, Université de Toulon, CNRS, IRD
Marc Garel: Aix-Marseille Univ, Université de Toulon, CNRS, IRD
Anne Godfroy: Laboratoire de Microbiologie des Environnements Extrêmes – LMEE/EEP/REM, Ifremer
Pierre-Marie Sarradin: Laboratoire Environnement Profond – LEP/EEP/REM, IFREMER

Nature Communications, 2021, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract Carbon budgets of hydrothermal plumes result from the balance between carbon sinks through plume chemoautotrophic processes and carbon release via microbial respiration. However, the lack of comprehensive analysis of the metabolic processes and biomass production rates hinders an accurate estimate of their contribution to the deep ocean carbon cycle. Here, we use a biogeochemical model to estimate the autotrophic and heterotrophic production rates of microbial communities in hydrothermal plumes and validate it with in situ data. We show how substrate limitation might prevent net chemolithoautotrophic production in hydrothermal plumes. Elevated prokaryotic heterotrophic production rates (up to 0.9 gCm−2y−1) compared to the surrounding seawater could lead to 0.05 GtCy−1 of C-biomass produced through chemoorganotrophy within hydrothermal plumes, similar to the Particulate Organic Carbon (POC) export fluxes reported in the deep ocean. We conclude that hydrothermal plumes must be accounted for as significant deep sources of POC in ocean carbon budgets.

Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-26877-6

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