AUTHOR=Gulmann Lara K., Beaulieu Stace E., Shank Timothy M., Ding Kang , Seyfried William E., Sievert Stefan M. TITLE=Bacterial diversity and successional patterns during biofilm formation on freshly exposed basalt surfaces at diffuse-flow deep-sea vents JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology VOLUME=6 YEAR=2015 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2015.00901 DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2015.00901 ISSN=1664-302X ABSTRACT=
Many deep-sea hydrothermal vent systems are regularly impacted by volcanic eruptions, leaving fresh basalt where abundant animal and microbial communities once thrived. After an eruption, microbial biofilms are often the first visible evidence of biotic re-colonization. The present study is the first to investigate microbial colonization of newly exposed basalt surfaces in the context of vent fluid chemistry over an extended period of time (4–293 days) by deploying basalt blocks within an established diffuse-flow vent at the 9°50′ N vent field on the East Pacific Rise. Additionally, samples obtained after a recent eruption at the same vent field allowed for comparison between experimental results and those from natural microbial re-colonization. Over 9 months, the community changed from being composed almost exclusively of