AP BIOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -Answer. Hydrothermal vents support unique ecosystems and their communities of organisms in the deep ocean. They help regulate ocean chemistry and circulation. They also provide a laboratory in which scientists can study changes to the ocean and how life on Earth could have begun.

Detailed explanation-2: -By creating protocells in hot, alkaline seawater, a UCL-led research team has added to evidence that the origin of life could have been in deep-sea hydrothermal vents rather than shallow pools.

Detailed explanation-3: -The food chain at these ocean oases relies on a core process called chemosynthesis, which is carried out by bacteria. This is similar to photosynthesis used by plants on land, but instead of using light energy from the Sun, the bacteria use chemicals drawn from the vent fluid.

Detailed explanation-4: -Hot, mineral-rich fluids supply nutrient chemicals. Microbes, some of which eat these chemicals, form the base of the food chain for a diverse community of organisms. These vents are the only places on Earth where the ultimate source of energy for life is not sunlight but the inorganic Earth itself.

Detailed explanation-5: -A new theory proposes the primordial life-forms that gave rise to all life on Earth left deep-sea vents because of their “invention” of a tiny pump. These primitive cellular pumps would have powered life-giving chemical reactions.