alleryStart learning →No sunlight reaches a deep hydrothermal vent, yet a rich community lives there. What supports it?
ABacteria using inorganic chemicals
BAlgae using very faint sunlight
CPlants rooted in the warm sediment
DCorals feeding on their own algae
Answer & Solution
Correct answer: A. Bacteria using inorganic chemicals
1. Vents on the ocean floor sit far below the depth any light reaches.
2. Without light there can be no photosynthesis, so no photoautotroph can start the food web.
3. Chemoautotrophic bacteria live there instead and draw energy from inorganic chemicals.
4. They build complex organic molecules such as glucose from that energy.
5. Those molecules then feed the shrimp, mussels and other animals crowding the vent.
_Source: OpenStax Biology 1e (CC BY 4.0), Chs 44 and 46, section 46.2 Energy Flow through Ecosystems_
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