摘要：

The concentrations of a suite of redox reactive chemicals were measured in the Rose Garden hydrothermal vent field of the Galapagos spreading center. Sulfide, silicate, oxygen and temperature distributions were measured in situ with a submersible chemical analyser. In addition, 15 chemical species were measured in discrete samples. Variability in the slope of the temperature-silicate plots indicates that heat is lost from these relatively low temperatures (<15°C) solutions by conduction to the solid phase. Consumption of oxygen, sulfide and nitrate from the hydrothermal solution as it flows past the vent animals is apparent from the distributions measured in situ and in the discrete samples. The fraction of sulfide and nitrate removed from the solution by consumption appears to have increased between 1979–1985. Sulfide and oxygen appear to be consumed under different conditions: sulfide is removed primarily from the warmest solutions, and oxygen is consumed only from the cold seawater. This separation may be driven primarily by the increased gradients of each chemical under these conditions. There is no evidence for the consumption of significant amounts of manganese(II) by the vent organisms. The analysis of other data sets from this vent field indicate no significant consumption of methane by the vent organisms, as well.

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