Microbial taxonomic and functional diversity of the Aeolian Islands shallow-water hydrothermal vents. AEO19 Shallow-water hydrothermal vent microbiology

Shallow-water hydrothermal vents are unique marine environments ubiquitous along the coast of volcanically active regions of the planet. In contrast to their deep-sea counterparts, primary production at shallow-water vents relies on both photoautotrophy and chemoautotrophy. Such processes are supported by a range of geochemical regimes driven by different geological settings. The Aeolian archipelago (Italy), located in the southern Tyrrhenian sea, is characterized by intense hydrothermal activity and harbors some of the best sampled shallow-water vents of the Mediterranean Sea. Despite this, the correlation between microbial diversity, geochemical regimes and geological settings of the different volcanic islands of the archipelago is largely unknown. Here we investigate the interplay between the geology, geochemistry and microbiology of the shallow-water hydrothermal vents of the Aeolian islands.