Hello #sciencetwitter! It’s #ProtistSession time!
I’m presenting work on the ecology of protists found at hydrothermal vents. https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🌋" title="Vulkan" aria-label="Emoji: Vulkan">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🌊" title="Wasserwelle" aria-label="Emoji: Wasserwelle">
Super excited to interact with you all today via #ProtistSession 12WT7 https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🧵" title="Thread" aria-label="Emoji: Thread">

I’m a postdoc @WHOI in the lab of @Julesdeep by way of @deepbiosphere. My research question: What are microeuks doing at deep-sea vents? We know they are there, we know there are chemosynthetic microbes supporting vent life, but what role do the protists play???

Today, I’m sharing results from a cruise to Gorda Ridge #hydrothermalvent field @SUBSEA_research @EVNautilus
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="⛴" title="Fähre" aria-label="Emoji: Fähre"> Protistan grazers are important in food webs https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🕸" title="Spinnennetz" aria-label="Emoji: Spinnennetz">, esp as a source of mortality & carbon transfer to higher trophic levels. But we don’t know a lot about them at ventshttps://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🧐" title="Gesicht mit Monokel" aria-label="Emoji: Gesicht mit Monokel">

Previous work has found microeuks to inhabit these biologically rich hot spots in the deep ocean https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🌋" title="Vulkan" aria-label="Emoji: Vulkan"> Even cooler - that work has identified lots of heterotrophic protists AND evidence they ingest bacteria! https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🍽" title="Gabel und Messer mit Teller" aria-label="Emoji: Gabel und Messer mit Teller">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🦠" title="Microbe" aria-label="Emoji: Microbe">

This #ProtistSession summarizes results from grazing experiments with hydrothermal vent fluid https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🔬" title="Mikroskop" aria-label="Emoji: Mikroskop">& amplicon analysis https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🧬" title="DNA" aria-label="Emoji: DNA"> Shoutout to @science_is_dope @microbiaki @astro_microbe @GinnyEdgcomb @JulesDeep

Aboard the @EVNautilus, we targeted low temperature (<100Chttps://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🌡" title="Thermometer" aria-label="Emoji: Thermometer">) diffuse venting fluid https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🌋" title="Vulkan" aria-label="Emoji: Vulkan">. https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🤖" title="Robotergesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Robotergesicht">ROV Hercules collected and brought fluid shipboard so we could run incubations!

Grazing experiments https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🍽" title="Gabel und Messer mit Teller" aria-label="Emoji: Gabel und Messer mit Teller">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🧪" title="Test tube" aria-label="Emoji: Test tube">allowed us to track the loss of a prey analog over timehttps://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="📉" title="Tabelle mit Abwärtstrend" aria-label="Emoji: Tabelle mit Abwärtstrend">. Samples were counted via microscopy https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🔬" title="Mikroskop" aria-label="Emoji: Mikroskop">. Then we calculated an estimated grazing rate https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🧮" title="Abacus" aria-label="Emoji: Abacus">.

Fluid from the vents, plume (above the vent sites), and background seawater was filtered for molecular surveys https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🧬" title="DNA" aria-label="Emoji: DNA">. #filter Tag-sequencing provided a snapshot of the diversity and distribution of the protist community https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="📊" title="Balkendiagramm" aria-label="Emoji: Balkendiagramm">

Together, the grazing incubations & community composition give us a new view of the ecological roles of protists in hydrothermal vent food webs https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="💯" title="Hundert Punkte Symbol" aria-label="Emoji: Hundert Punkte Symbol">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🌋" title="Vulkan" aria-label="Emoji: Vulkan">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🦠" title="Microbe" aria-label="Emoji: Microbe">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🕸" title="Spinnennetz" aria-label="Emoji: Spinnennetz">

Thank you to host/organizers for #ProtistSession @protistologists @animalcul @Euglenaria @pipa_sw Shelby, & Johana!