TUIM07MV

Fluid chemistry, physiology, ecology; from Chuck Fisher's website: This was the 5th and last cruise [of a] series of expeditions, between 2004-2005, aimed at taking a multidisciplinary approach at studying the geology, chemistry and biology of hydrothermal vents at the Ridge2000 designated Integrated Study Site, the East Lau Basin Back Arc Spreading Center. Our cruise was led by chief scientist Dr. Chuck Fisher and consisted of a collaboration between researchers at Penn State in Dr. Fisher’s lab (K. Zelnio, L. Podowski, G. Telesnicki), University of Delaware, University of California at Santa Barbara, Moss Landing Marine Laboratory (in California), Station Biologique Roscoff and Centre de Brest de l’Ifremer (both in France). We also had an observer from the Kingdom of Tonga on board since we were working in their waters. This expedition had several goals. In particular, the Fisher Lab’s role was to take high-resolution images of the seafloor for creating photo-mosaics and GIS databases, quantitative collection of chemoautotrophic snail and mussel communities, collect stable isotope sample for a quantitative food web study, collect organisms for systematic study, deploy temperature data loggers on the seafloor for recovery next year and find and map new vent sites for future study. Other research group’s goals included taking in-situ chemistry and temperature measurements, processing water samples from hydrothermal vents for chemical analyses, investigating the reproductive biology of vent fauna, studying the communities of organisms living on the periphery of the vent communities using photo-mosaics and selective sampling for stable isotope and systematic study, conducting physiological experiments of vent fauna in pressure chambers and other physiological biochemical studies of chemoautotrophic fauna.