A CHEMICAL “soup” pouring from underwater hot springs is enough to put hairs on your chest, North East experts have discovered.
The marine biologists from Newcastle University have found a new species of yeti crab living around previously undiscovered hydrothermal vents at the bottom of the ocean in Antarctica. These vents or “black smokers” are where water heated by volcanic activity gushes out of seabed chimneys at temperatures of more than 350C.
Yeti crabs were first identified around vents elsewhere in the world in 2005 and were so called because of their hairy legs.
But the crabs found by the Newcastle scientists, who were parts of a team on board the UK’s ocean-going research ship, RRS James Cook, have hairy chests instead of legs.
They are among a cluster of new species found at two vent areas in Antarctica, which also include a seven-armed sea star and new types of snail.
Newcastle’s Dr Christopher Sweeting and PhD student William Reid were on eight and seven-week expeditions to find the vent areas in the Southern Ocean, funded by the Natural Environment Research Council.
At a depth of 2,400m or more where these vents were found, there is no sunlight. Animals associated with black smokers live on bacteria that use dissolved chemicals from hot water coming out of vents to produce their food.
It is thought that the yeti crabs grow their hair to accommodate bacteria, which they then eat.
Dr Sweeting said: “The creatures face a lot of challenges and suffer for their food. The female yeti crabs have to move away from the hottest water when they are carrying eggs or their eggs will be cooked.
“Despite the harsh conditions these vents host a super abundance of animals. There is a huge amount of life. The yeti crab we found has never before been seen and yet here it was living in vast numbers piled in layers one on top of another at up to 600 crabs per square metre.
“Smaller snails were found in concentrations of around 1,000 per square metre.”
Dr Sweeting said that the creatures at the study sites had evolved in isolation from other ocean vent areas.
He said that the findings were important for health and commercial reasons by providing information on how enzymes could cope with high temperatures.
“These vent systems could also be similar to how life evolved on Earth,” he said.
“The vent systems are also very mineral rich with zinc, copper and silver. There is a risk that these could be mined and we have to understand these systems before they may be exploited.”
Dr Sweeting said: “We have had an inkling these vents exist ever since chemical signals were first detected in the water 15 years ago.
“We were able to follow the trail of dissolved chemicals towards a source, much like tracking a chemical scent.
“Video footage was then used to confirm their existence – a challenge in itself. It was the equivalent of filming with a camera the size of a match box steered by a thread from 12 storeys up.”
:: Click here to go to the PLos Biology website to see the original research paper
