摘要
现代海底热液喷口以及许多陆地热泉周围生活着密集的生物群落。热液生态系统的初级生产者嗜热细菌和古细菌(Archaea),其初级能量来源是由地球深部上升喷出流体提供的化学能。围绕现代热泉微生物及其与地史时期热泉微生物化石的对比研究表明,它们具有相似结构特征。研究微生物成矿机制和微生物化石化作用,以及沉积物中由生物化学作用产生的生物标志,不仅有助于探讨海底热液活动的规律性和成矿机制,也可以为鉴别古老岩石和地外矿物中生命现象提供更多更详细的鉴定标志,对于理解生命起源和地外生命都有重要的理论意义。
Hydrothermal communities on the deep seafloor live around black smoker sites. The primary producers of hydrothermal ecosystems are thermophiles and archaea. Bacteria convert chemicals (from the sulfur rich fluid spewed out of vents) to energy, in a process called chemosynthesis. The comparison in modern hot spring microbe and ancient hydrothermal systems indicates that they have similar structural characteristics. Studies in mechanism of mineralization, the process of bacterial fossilization and the biochemical microbial biosignatures in sediment not only has crucial implication for the further probe into the rules of the activities of hydrothermal fluid in deep sea and minerogenic mechanism but also hold importance for exploration of signatures of life or prebiotic chemistry on other bodies in the solar system, as well as providing more robust criteria for recognizing biogenic features in ancient terrestrial and extraterrestrial materials. In addition, it has important theoretical meaning for the understanding of astrobiology and the origin of life.
出处
《微体古生物学报》
CSCD
北大核心
2005年第2期136-142,共7页
Acta Micropalaeontologica Sinica
基金
国家自然科学基金项目"河北兴隆中元古代硫化物黑烟囱形成机理及其意义"(编号:40472097)
北京大学985项目资助。
关键词
热泉
微生物化石
形成过程
热液
块状硫化物
鉴别标志
microbe fossils, hot spring, hydrothermal fluid, massive sulfide, identification
