Principal Investigators:
Chuck Fisher, a Penn State professor of biology, is chief scientist on the RV Atlantis, the "biology boat" for the cruise. Fisher studies the physiology and ecology of symbiotic autotrophic marine microbes and their invertebrate hosts. In the past 19 years, he has made 75 deep-sea dives in research submersibles and has spent another 54 days at sea working with deep-diving remotely operated vehicles. His laboratory at Penn State is currently conducting research projects at hydrothermal vents sites on the East Pacific Rise and at hydrocarbon-seep sites in the Gulf of Mexico.
James Childress, chief scientist on the RV New Horizon, (the "physiology boat"), is a professor of marine biology at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Childress was a principal investigator on the first biological expedition to the deep-sea hydrothermal vents in 1979, and since then he has been chief scientist on upwards of 70 oceanographic cruises and has made more than 50 dives in deep submersibles. He has had four species of deep-sea animals named after him: two shrimps, a jellyfish, and a mussel.
Members of Fisher's lab on the trip:
Sue Carney, a Ph.D. student, is interested in molecular approaches to deep-sea ecological questions. She has looked at genetic variation in hydrothermal vent tubeworms and in deep sea mussels from cold-seep environments.
Sharmishtha Dattagupta, also a Ph.D. student, got her masters in biotechnology in Bombay, India. She has working on data analysis of transplant experiments with mussels from the Gulf of Mexico. She also wants to work on behavior studies of the methane-utilizing seep mollusc Bathynerita naticoidea.
Jason Flores another Ph.D. student, is currently working on the blood physiology of the hydrothermal vent tubeworm, Ridgeia piscesae. He hopes to get insight into what mechanisms have allowed R. piscesae to survive, and even thrive, under diverse environmental conditions.
Breea Govenar, yet another Ph.D. student, is interested in the community ecology of hydrothermal vents. She is currently at work estimating biomass and diversity from samples taken from various hydrothermal chimneys at the Juan de Fuca Ridge in the northeast Pacific Ocean.
Stephane Hourdez, a postdoctoral fellow, holds a Ph.D. in biological oceanography from the University Pierre & Marie Curie in Paris, France. His doctoral work was on the respiratory adaptations of deep-sea worms to hydrothermal vents and cold seeps.
Therese Waltz is an undergaduate majoring in biology who has been working on analyzing DNA samples taken from various species of tubeworms living at hydrothermal seeps.
Our correspondent:
Joanna Lott is a freelance writer and assistant editor of Research/Penn State. This is her first ocean cruise.
