Hello #sciencetwitter! It’s #ProtistSession time!
I’m presenting work on the ecology of protists found at hydrothermal vents.
Super excited to interact with you all today via #ProtistSession 12WT7

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
Protistan grazers are important in food webs , esp as a source of mortality & carbon transfer to higher trophic levels. But we don’t know a lot about them at vents

Previous work has found microeuks to inhabit these biologically rich hot spots in the deep ocean Even cooler - that work has identified lots of heterotrophic protists AND evidence they ingest bacteria!

This #ProtistSession summarizes results from grazing experiments with hydrothermal vent fluid & amplicon analysis Shoutout to @science_is_dope @microbiaki @astro_microbe @GinnyEdgcomb @JulesDeep

Aboard the @EVNautilus, we targeted low temperature (<100C) diffuse venting fluid . ROV Hercules collected and brought fluid shipboard so we could run incubations!

Grazing experiments allowed us to track the loss of a prey analog over time. Samples were counted via microscopy . Then we calculated an estimated grazing rate .

Fluid from the vents, plume (above the vent sites), and background seawater was filtered for molecular surveys . #filter Tag-sequencing provided a snapshot of the diversity and distribution of the protist community

Together, the grazing incubations & community composition give us a new view of the ecological roles of protists in hydrothermal vent food webs

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