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This Behind the Scenes article was provided to LiveScience in partnership with the National Science Foundation .
About three years ago , Emily Beal — a graduate pupil in geosciences at Penn State — eagerly boarded the recondite - diving enquiry submersible call Alvin , confine for the bottom of the ocean .
The submersible Alvin which Emily Beale and her colleagues used to collect sediment from methane seeps in the Eel River Basin in California.
After contract into Alvin ’s Ti sphere , Beal began her plunge to the ocean floor with more than a tad of claustrophobia . Alvin was just bighearted enough to hold her , the submersible warship ’s pilot , and Penn State colleague Chris House . as luck would have it , as Beal peered out of Alvin ’s shell - sized portholes during her ancestry , her claustrophobia quickly gave path to thoroughgoing , unalloyed exhilaration .
“ Once we drop below the ocean ’s sun - lit surface layers , the pitch - black ocean was crystallize by fluorescing being ; they spark off and twinkled like stars ; they were gorgeous , ” she recalled .
A mission for microbes
Why were Beal and House travelling to the bottom of the sea ? They were heading to collect samples of microbes that endure near methane seeps — place where methane and other hydrocarbon - rich fluids gush from the ocean story .
Beal and House pull together these samples as part of a enquiry project conducted with Victoria Orphan of the California Institute of Technology .
Scientists are disembowel to methane seeps because they host unparalleled ecosystem that , unlike almost all other ecosystems , are independent of light and not power by photosynthesis . Rather , these ecosystem are power by chemic energy that is produced when bug consume methane that seeps through oxygen - free sediments .
“ Almost all methane released at methane seeps is ware by microbes , ” said Beal . “ As a result , very petty of this methane , which is an important greenhouse gas , makes it into the sea body of water and atmosphere . ”
Yet much remains cryptic about methane seeps . “ We do n’t totally understand why methane seeps form where they do ; perhaps these fluids stand up through faults from areas where they are produced at depth by biological or other processes , ” said Beal . Beal ’s research party knew that they would probably find methane seeps in their target area because other researcher had antecedently find them in that area .
scientist know very little about the chemical reactions that occur when microbes consume methane at methane seeps , partly because of the difficultness underlying in collect vestal sampling of methane - eat bug from seeps and farm them in the laboratory .
Nevertheless , scientist have long known that bug combine the methane released from methane seeps combine with sulfates to form hydrogen sulfides and carbon dioxide . The H sulfides produce through this reaction nourish clams and other animals living at methane seeps , and the atomic number 6 dioxide raise finally precipitates out of the water as carbonates , preventing the nursery gas from making it to the atmosphere .
Scientists have long suspected that other types of compounds besides sulfates may immix with methane to produce carbon paper dioxide , but grounds is lacking .
Hitting bottom
After descending through the water column for about an hour , the research party approach a swath of sea base about 530 meters ( about 1740 foot ) cryptic .
Then , the Alvin ’s pilot burner swap on the submersible warship ’s spotlights which illuminated a flurry of flat fish and an episodic shark , and set Alvin on a course of study parallel to the seafloor .
During the three - 60 minutes enquiry patrol that follow , Beal and House notice multiple methane seep by look for their telltale signs : methane bubbles rising from the ocean level , white and orange microbial lustrelessness carpet the sea floor and clusters of simoleons feeding on H sulfate .
By manipulate Alvin ’s two hydraulic , robotic coat of arms , the investigator were able to collect bug - containing sediments from these seeps and haul them back during their hour - long ascent back to the Earth’s surface .
Back at the science laboratory . . .
Once Beal and House fall to the lab , they set out to determine whether germ at seeps practice iron oxide or atomic number 25 without the presence of sulfates to win over methane to carbon dioxide .
The enquiry involve compare the amount of carbon paper dioxide released from several sediment systems taste during the Alvin dive . Some of the scheme contained sulfates ; some were sulfate - free ; and some contained smoothing iron oxide or manganese oxide without any sulfates .
The investigator ’ result , which were published in Science on July 10 , 2009 , register that as expected , methane use was gamey in the deposit systems that contain sulfates .
Nevertheless , both the Fe and manganese oxide - laced sample also indicate significant amount of money of methane consumption , though less economic consumption occurred in those organisation than in the sulphate system .
“ Although these results do not indicate that atomic number 26 and Mn are more important than sulfate , they indicate that atomic number 26 and manganese are probably more than trivial parts of the Earth ’s C cycle , ” said Beal .
The issue also suggest that reactions between methane and manganese or iron oxide may have represent an of import role in the methane cycle during the Earth ’s early Clarence Shepard Day Jr. , added Beal . “ During that period , there was plausibly enough manganese and iron oxide available to hold up chemical substance reactions consuming methane . ”
So far , Beal has categorise more than a dozen seep microorganisms included in her experiments . Nevertheless , she does not yet know which individual bug or pool of microbes is responsible for consuming methane , but hopes to eventually name these important organism through her ongoing research .
