ENVIRONMENT OF THE DEEP SEA :

MICROBIOLOGY POINT OF VIEW

DWI CANDRA PRATIWI, M.Sc

FAKULTAS PERIKANAN DAN ILMU KELAUTAN

UNIVERSITAS BRAWIJAYA
How deep is deep
????
An appropriate answer is >1000 m.
• To put this into a perspective, 88% of the area
of the sea could, therefore, be deemed as
deep.

• Alternatively, 75% of the total volume of the

oceans comprises deep sea.
 THE DEEP SEA ENVIRONMENT
• Food sources:
– Dead fish
• Dead fish settle at rates of 50-500 m/h and do not degrade
greatly en route to the sea floor.
• There is a more continuous settling to the sea floor of
minute organic particles. (called “marine snow”)
– Plankton
• Phytoplankton sink at a rate of only 0.1-1.0 m/day, but they
constitute a constant source of food in the deep sea.
• The faecal pellets of zooplankton is 50-200 m/day and up to
2700 m/day.
Certainly it is readily admitted that the
deep sea is hardly a nutrient-rich
environment compared to surface
waters….
Important things you have to know
about deep sea environment…..

1. Deep sea seems to have a particularly low

input of organic carbon, with only
approximately 1-3% of the photosynthetic
organic carbon reaching the bottom.

2. Most of the deep sea is cold. The

temperature around 3 ⁰C ± 1⁰C .
3. The deep sea also under great pressure (apx
1 atm of pressure for every 10m of depth).

4. Low dissolved oxygen compared to the

shallow water.
• Oxygen minimum zone usually at 500-1000m.
Hydrothermal Vents
• At the bottom of there oceans, i.e Atlantic,
Indian and Pacific, volcanoes add to the
topography of the sea floor.

• Many are active , emitting hot lava to the

aquatic environment.

• High pressure and temperature (>350 ⁰C).

• The sea water reacts with the underlying basalt

rock to form a highly reduced and acidic liquid,
known as “hydrothermal fluids”.
 Hydrothermal fluids

• Enriched : hydrogen, hydrogen sulphide, and

metals (C, Cu, Fe, Ca, Mg, Mn).
• Black smokers is rapid and dense precipitation of
grey-black polymetasulphide particles.
• White smoker is contains lighter-hued minerals,
such as those containing barium, calcium, and
silicon.
 Two types of vent have been found :
1. Warm vent with maximum exit temperatures
of 5 to 23oC and flow rates of 0.5 to 20 cm/s.
2. Hot vents with maximum exit temperatures
of 270 to 380oC and flow rates of 1 to 2 cm/s
1. Hot vents includes white smokers (±300oC) and
black smokers (350±2oC)
Experimental approach to the study of
deep sea microbiology

• Deep sea sampling technique can be done

from the very simple to complex methods.
• Samples may be obtained in bag, grabs and
corers from line descending from surface
ships.
• In this sampling method there is no problem
of pressure and temperature differences
between bottom and surface water.
• Results is highly suspect.
“ALVIN” DEEP SEA EXPLORER

Harold E. Froehlich
• Is more than 4.000 m depth.

• However, if these are returned to the surface

for examination at atmospheric pressure, the
extra cost of the operation is difficult to justify.
 How deep sea micro-organisms may be
studied at in situ pressure and
temperature?
• Two possibilities :
1. Sample be collected and returned to the surface
at in situ pressure and temperature, OR

2. Experiments be conducted on the sea floor

• On of Early experiments of deep sea samples
conducted 1978 by Dietz and Yayanos.
• They used a nutrient rich silica gel shake tube
medium to recover a spirillum-like bacterium
from pressurized enrichment of a
decomposing deep sea amphipod, which was
obtained from depth of 5800 m.
 Continue….
• That organism grew best at :
– 500-1000 atm
– Min generation time of 8-9 hours
– At 2-4 ⁰C

• The organism was truly being sensitive to

temperature of> 10 ⁰C
• Agar plating may be used in conjunction with
pressurized vessels containing oxygen-helium
mixture to isolate bacteria.
• As a general rule, it appears that the optimum
pressure for the growth of deep sea
barophiles corresponds closely to the in situ
pressure from which the sample was
obtained.

• Agar plating technique has been used in a

nutrient-deficient medium to culture black
smoker bacteria at 120 ⁰C (Deming and
Baross, 1986).
• Microbial activity in dissolved substrate may be
examined by means of more elaborate
equipment, such as “syringe array”.
• Syringe was placed in deep sea submarine arms.
• This technique has been used to measure CO2
fixation in the deep sea.
• The results have clearly demonstrated that
organic compound have slower conversion in the
deep sea than at atmospheric pressure (this
assume that temperature are similar)
• Carbon dioxides experiment on the sea floor.
video. (source: youtube)
• Under water exploration core sampling sea
bed.
video (source: youtube)
 THINGS TO BE NOTICED…
• Barophiles = are microorganisms that can
survive under great pressures.

• Psychrophiles or cryophiles (adj. cryophilic)

are extremophilic organisms that are capable
of growth and reproduction in cold
temperatures, ranging from −15°C to +10°C
 QUANTITATIVE ASPECT OF THE
MICROORGANISM OF THE DEEP SEA

Water column

Microbial activity lower

Microbial activity higher

Sediment Microbial activity lower

** the ability decreased within the upper ± 7cm thickness of deep-sea sediments.
* The activities of microorganisms resulting in chemical or physical changes
ACTIVITY AND ROLE OF THE DEEP SEA
MICROORGANISM
• In major case, deep sea micro-organism must
be effectively struggling for survival in a state
of near-starvation.
• One of the most dramatic effect is that cells
becomes much smaller and may be quite
capable of passing through the pores of a
bacteriological filter.
• An obvious benefit of this near-starvation is an
increase in barotolerance.
• The effects of pressure up to 1000 atm at 3.5
°C were assed on binding, transport,
respiration and protein synthesis.
– Study conducted on Tanner crabs (Chionoecetes
tanneri) which live in depth 500-5000m
 Things you’ve to notice…

• Doubling (generation) times of cells is

approximately to be 145 h at depth of 1500
m, extending to 210 h for depth of 5550 m

• Special case , In hydrothermal vent,

generation times only 26 minutes have been
recorded for some bacteria (which indicates a
comparatively high metabolic activity)
 In General…
The higher depth of organism is living
the longer doubling time of cell
• On of important roles of the deep sea bacteria
is that of serving as a primary food source for
aquatic invertebrates.
• Certainly it seems likely that bacteria serve as
the primary carbon, nitrogen, some
aminoacids and energy for invertebrate
(detritivores).
 Chemosynthetic activity at the deep
sea hydrothermal vents

• In hydrothermal vent, non-phototrophic,

chemoautrotrophic, bacteria comprise the
primary producers of organic carbon using
reduced inorganic compounds, notably
hydrogen sulphide, thiosulphate, ammonia,
nitrite, hydrogen, carbon monoxide and iron.
In the hydrothermal vents fluid as a source of
geothermal (chemical) energy in a process
known as chemosynthesis.
Chemosynthesis occurs in 3 areas :

1. In microbial suspension emitted with the

warm vent water.
2. In the microbial mats
3. In symbiotic association between
invertebrate and chemosynthetic bacteria.
Hydrothermal Vents
Microbial mats Symbiotic association between
invertebrate and chemosynthetic
bacteria
Thank you..