Virtual Field Trip: Exploring Hydrothermal Vents with Schmidt Ocean Institute
Summary
We are once again heading aboard the R/V Falkor with Schmidt Ocean Institute for a unique virtual field trip! Join the ship and their scientists in the South Pacific as they explore hydrothermal vents using remotely operated vehicles (ROVs). Led by scientist Chuck Fisher, we will explore the ship and get a first look at the data his team is collecting.
The remotely operated vehicle (ROV) ROPOS will travel up to nine thousand feet to the deep seafloor of the Lau Basin. Once on the bottom, the extremely versatile ROV will perform a range of scientific tasks including visual and sonar surveys, collecting specimens and samples, and taking environmental measurements. All the research conducted on this hydrothermal vent expedition will be facilitated by the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) ROPOS. From a sensor onboard ROPOS, scientists will conduct high-resolution bathymetric surveys at six hydrothermal vent fields to look for evidence of tectonic or volcanic events that alter the environment. These high-resolution bathymetric maps will also provide insight into geological processes for more than two dozen long-term study sites members of the team established in 2005 and 2006. At each site, high-resolution two- and three-dimensional mosaics and advanced in situ chemical and temperature sensors will be used to document the fine-scale spatial ecology of hydrothermal vents, the effect vent animals have on the local water chemistry, and temporal ecosystem changes.
Explore a little known environment, view data collected by ROVs, and converse with field scientists, register for this one of a kind virtual field trip!
Learn more about the R/V Falkor and this cruise >>
Panelists
Jessie Panzarino
Jessica Panzarino is in her second year of graduate school at Harvard University in Prof. Peter R. Girguis’s lab. She studies chemosynthetic symbiosis at hydrothermal vents. In particular, she is interested in how symbiotic associations can expand the metabolic repertoire for the organisms involved. She is also fascinated in how the metabolic processes of microbes alter the geochemistry of the environment and how these alterations can have strong influences on the ecology of the area.
She became interested in the role that microbes play in geochemical cycling and ecology when she was an undergraduate at UMass Boston, where she worked with sediments in a freshwater ecology lab.
This will be her second research cruise to a hydrothermal vent system. She will use a high-pressure system to keep deep sea animals alive in conditions that mimic their native habitat. During this cruise, she will be using this system to study the fauna found in the Lau Basin.
Classroom Resources
Where is the ship now? Are your students intersted in the area that the R/V Falkor is exploring? Track the ship's current location and status here.
Cruise Log: The ship's cruise log is updated frequently while they are out at sea. Check back regularly and you may see some of your questions answered in the blog! Access the blog here.
Hydrothermal Vent Videos from Schmidt Ocean: Get an up close look at hydrothermal vents before the virtual field trip! These videos from one of the R/V Falkor's previous research trips provide great visuals.
Science Standards
ESS2.A: Earth’s Materials and Systems
- All Earth processes are the result of energy flowing and matter cycling within and among the planet’s systems. This energy is derived from the sun and Earth’s hot interior. The energy that flows and matter that cycles produce chemical and physical changes in Earth’s materials and living organisms.
- The planet’s systems interact over scales that range from microscopic to global in size, and they operate over fractions of a second to billions of years. These interactions have shaped Earth’s history and will determine its future.
LS4.C: Adaptation
- Adaptation by natural selection acting over generations is one important process by which species change over time in response to changes in environmental conditions. Traits that support successful survival and reproduction in the new environment become more common; those that do not become less common. Thus, the distribution of traits in a population changes.
LS2.A: Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems
- Organisms, and populations of organisms, are dependent on their environmental interactions both with other living things and with nonliving factors.
- In any ecosystem, organisms and populations with similar requirements for food, water, oxygen, or other resources may compete with each other for limited resources, access to which consequently constrains their growth and reproduction.
- Growth of organisms and population increases are limited by access to resources.
- Similarly, predatory interactions may reduce the number of organisms or eliminate whole populations of organisms. Mutually beneficial interactions, in contrast, may become so interdependent that each organism requires the other for survival. Although the species involved in these competitive, predatory, and mutually beneficial interactions vary across ecosystems, the patterns of interactions of organisms with their environments, both living and nonliving, are shared.
LS2.C: Ecosystem Dynamics, Functioning, and Resilience
- Ecosystems are dynamic in nature; their characteristics can vary over time. Disruptions to any physical or biological component of an ecosystem can lead to shifts in all its populations.
- Biodiversity describes the variety of species found in Earth’s terrestrial and oceanic ecosystems. The completeness or integrity of an ecosystem’s biodiversity is often used as a measure of its health.