User:BrookeBarlow/Brine pool

Support of Life

An important part of the study of extreme environments such as brine pools is the function and survival of microbes. Microbes help support the larger biological community around environments like brine pools and hydrothermal vents and are key to understanding the survival of other extremophiles. Biofilms contribute to the creation of microbes and are considered the foundation by which other micro-organisms can survive in extreme environments. The research into the growth and function of artificial extremophile biofilms has been slow due to the difficulty in recreating the extreme deep-sea environments they are found in.

Despite the harsh conditions, life in the form of macrofauna such as bivalves can be found in a thin area along the rim of a brine pool. A novel genus and species of bivalves known as Apachecorbula muriatica have been found along the edge of the "Valdiva Deep" brine pool in the Red Sea. There have also been recorded instances of macrofauna brine pools at the seawater interface. Inactive sulfur chimneys have been found with affiliated epifauna such as polychaetes and hydroids. Infauna such as gastropods, capitellid polychaetes, and top snails have also been found to be associated with brine pools in the Red Sea. Such species typically feed on microbial symbionts or bacterial and detritus films.

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