Life in Sulfidic Environments: Historical Perspective and Current Research Trends

Abstract

SYNOPSIS. The discovery of the deep-sea hydrothermal vents and their associated fauna in 1977 was a watershed for the recent interest in the biology of sulfidic environments. From the initial questions concerning how organisms survived at the high sulfide concentrations around the vents, research quickly focused on the previously unrecognized sulfuroxidizing chemoautotrophic invertebrate/bacterial symbioses whose nature was discovered in 1980. There followed a successful and frenzied search for other reducing habitats harboring non-vent chemoautotrophic symbioses. The interest in the biology of species living in sulfidic habitats has since expanded to include the non-symbiotic species, species with sulfuroxidizing symbionts and species with methanotrophic symbionts, all of which must be adapted to tolerate sulfide and many of which are adapted to utilize sulfide in various ways.