Vent Ecology

Objective: The understanding of vent ecology requires contributions from and interactions among a wide range of biological disciplines as well as chemists, geologists, and physical oceanographers. The current composition of the hydrothermal vent community at a given vent site is the result of very complex interplay among the evolutionary history of the taxa, the present-day interactions among species (symbiosis, predation, competition etc), and the physiological adaptations of each of the species to the challenging environmental conditions encountered at deep-sea hydrothermal vents. A primary goal of the Vent Ecology WG will be to foster cutting edge collaborations and other studies that will contribute to our understanding of the ecology of hydrothermal vents. The WG will also work to encourage and facilitate international collaborations and sharing of samples to maximize the scientific return from the resources available to our community and minimize our collective impact on vent communities.

Chairs - Charles Fisher (Penn State Univ., USA) and Stephane Hourdez (Roscoff, France)
Group Members - Maria Baker (UK and ChEss Program), Monika Bright (Austria), Ana Colaço (Portugal), Nicole Dubilier (Germany), Sergey Galkin (Russia), Peter Girguis (USA), Jung-Ho Hyun (Korea), Crispin Little (UK), Anna Metaxas (Canada), Katsu Fujikura (Japan), Xiang Xiao (China), ex-officio member: Nadine Le Bris (Chair, Biogeochemical Interactions WG)
Please note: Membership in this new WG may be adjusted.

(Working Group formed in 2008)