Some like it hot: Worms at deep-sea vents favor a fi...( CAMBRIDGE Mass. -- Scientists have fou...)

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Scientists have found that worms dwelling at deep-sea hydrothermal vents opt for temperatures of 45-55 degrees Celsius (113-131 degrees Fahrenheit) when given a choice of conditions, giving them the highest thermal preference of any animal studied to date. This unique preference for extreme temperatures may be the undersea worms' meal ticket, since they are apparently the only animals able to access -- and feast on -- lush mats of bacteria that thrive around deep-sea vents.

The research is described this week in the journal Science.

Authors Peter R. Girguis of Harvard University and Raymond W. Lee of Washington State University studied Paralvinella sulfincola, a member of the Alvinellidae family of worms dwelling at ocean depths of some 2,200 meters off the Pacific coast of Washington. When the researchers placed them within a special high-pressure seawater aquarium with a sharp temperature gradient, these worms chose to remain at roughly 50 degrees Celsius for the duration of a seven-hour experiment.

"This is far longer than animals have survived other thermo-tolerance studies, where scientists exposed individuals to high temperatures for 15 to 30 minutes, as long as it took for half of them to die," says Girguis, assistant professor of organismic and evolutionary biology in Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences. "Unlike many animals found in hot habitats, which merely tolerate extreme temperatures, these worms actually prefer temperatures around 50 degrees Celsius."

Girguis likens the worms' deep-sea habitat to a pot of scalding water heating inside a freezer. At extreme undersea pressures, water will not boil, so deep-sea thermal vents jet out water that remains liquid at temperatures of up to 350 degrees Celsius (662 degrees Fahrenheit). Because the surrounding seawater is barely above freezing, a steep and variable temperature gradient exists around the thermal vents, making it difficult to measure precisely
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Contact: Steve Bradt
steve_bradt@harvard.edu
617-496-8070
Harvard University
13-Apr-2006

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