Student Interdisciplinary Seminar: Smith

Jess Smith will present her research on “Larval Dispersal from Hydrothermal Vents”

The communities surrounding deep sea hydrothermal vents have fascinated scientists since the vents were discov-ered in the 1970s. One of the mysteries associated these communities is how the or-ganisms disperse between vents, particularly those that are separated by 1000s of kil-ometers. Vents are typically located along plate boundaries and are formed when a buildup of water pressure oc-curs under an impermeable magma intrusion, which is not found at all points on the boundary. Because vents are long distances apart, juvenile stages of organisms must have evolved ways to disperse in order to maintain gene flow and prevent extinction if their natal vent extinguishes. Different methods of larval development have been inferred from juvenile morphology, and hypotheses such as the island model and the stepping stone model try to predict how these larvae may be spreading from ridge to ridge, relying on data from ocean currents and buoyant plume models. Knowledge of the development of these organisms is scarce due to the difficultly in culturing them at atmospheric pressures and temperatures. Us-ing models is one way we can hypothesize the stages of dispersal in these organisms.