Trace metals in the water of the hydrothermal biotopes

Abstract

Hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor are surrounded by geochemical barriers that have been caused by extreme gradients of water temperature and concentrations of reduced compounds as well as trace metals. Now it is known that water of the faunal hydrothermal biotopes consistsmostly of the diluted hydrothermal fluids while the biological communities concentrate many trace metals due to bioaccumulation processes. Thus the deep-sea hydrothermal vent fields represent geochemically interesting areas where processes of trace metal dispersion and concentration coexist. In spite of the numerous publications on hydrothermal fluid biogeochemistry, some unsolved problems caused by the complexity of hydrothermal systems still remain. In this chapter, an attempt is made to summarize the available data on the trace metal distribution in the water of hydrothermal vent community habitats. These data allow us to understand that there is a difference in trace metal concentration in the water of biotopes of the different vent sites. Here a trace metal chemical speciation in the water of biotope is considered briefly as soon as it influences the ability of hydrothermal organisms to accumulate trace metals.