Using fine-scale high-resolution sampling to link Fe oxide-dominated hydrothermal vent-generated microbial mat morphology with community structure composition at Loihi Seamount, Hawaii

The scale at which sampling can be carried out in the deep ocean has largely been determined by the limits of robotic instrument manipulation at depth. Bulk sampling, via push cores, suction, or scoop samplers, collects mat material from heterogeneous microbial communities living in environments variable not only laterally with respect to an active vent (direct versus diffuse vent flow), but also with respect to depth across the steep redox gradient separating reduced hydrothermal fluid from oxygenated seawater. While initially unavoidable, these kinds of sampling strategies can only go so far in describing the intricate microbial ecology interactions occurring at hydrothermal vents. For this reason, a syringe sampler was developed for this study to sample targeted observable mat morphologies of surface mat material at small spatial scales. Multiple 'BioMat' samples (~ 20) were collected in 2013 from active, Fe oxide-dominated mats from several vent sites at Loihi Seamount, Hawaii, all experience temperatures ranging from 20 to 46°C. Quantitative-PCR (Q-PCR) primers were designed to detect the relative abundance of the marine iron-oxidizing Zetaproteobacteria. At Pohaku Vents, which is perched on the upper lip of the caldera, the average relative abundance of Zetaproteobacteria was significantly higher at 79.2% of the total microbial mat community. Two other sites within the caldera (Hiolo North and Hiolo South) had 26.8% and 36.9% Zetaproteobacteria, respectively. In addition, Terminal-Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (T-RFLP) analysis of these samples showed that the Pohaku Vent microbial mat community fingerprints all grouped together into a single cluster much more closely and with much less variability than with those from either Hiolo North or South. Finally, it was also observed that there were site-specific gross morphological characteristics associated with these microbial mats including veils, curds, and amorphous particles. It is presently unknown what environmental forcing functions might be driving these morphological and compositional microbial mat patterns; though we hypothesize that dissolved oxygen availability may be an important factor.