Enceladus as a Potential Niche for Methanogens and Estimation of Its Biomass

Enceladus is a potential target for future astrobiological missions. NASA's Cassini spacecraft demonstrated that the Saturnian moon harbors a salty ocean beneath its icy crust and the existence and analysis of the plume suggest water-rock reactions, consistent with the possible presence of hydrothermal vents. Particularly, the plume analysis revealed the presence of molecular hydrogen, which may be used as an energy source by microorganisms ( e.g., methanogens). This could support the possibility that populations of methanogens could establish in such environments if they exist on Enceladus. We took a macroscale approximation using ecological niche modeling to evaluate whether conditions suitable for methanogenic archaea on Earth are expected in Enceladus. In addition, we employed a new approach for computing the biomass using the Monod growth model. The response curves for the environmental variables performed well statistically, indicating that simple correlative models may be used to approximate large-scale distributions of these genera on Earth. We found that the potential hydrothermal conditions on Enceladus fit within the macroscale conditions identified as suitable for methanogens on Earth, and estimated a concentration of 1010-1011 cells/cm3.

Chemically rich and diverse submarine hydrothermal plumes of the southern Kermadec volcanic arc (New Zealand)

The New Zealand American PLUme Mapping Expedition (NZAPLUME) provided the first systematic survey of chemical emissions along a submarine volcanic frontal arc. Chemical plumes emanated from seven of 13 volcanoes that line a 260 km-long section of the southern Kermadec arc northeast of New Zealand. Hydrothermal plumes ranged in depth from <200 to 1500 m and are generally more shallow than plumes over mid-ocean ridges (MORs). The chemical signatures of plumes along the southern Kermadec arc are unusually diverse and have concentration anomalies for CO2, H2S and Fe that can exceed those for MOR settings by 5–10 times, or more. Projected end-member fluid concentrations of carbon and sulphur gases at some volcanoes require a magmatic vapour source, while unusually high Fe concentrations and Fe/Mn values are consistent with venting an iron-rich magmatic brine. Thus, vent-fluid emissions on the Kermadec arc volcanoes often appear as hybrid mixtures of hydrothermally evolved sea water influenced by water-rock reaction with compositionally diverse arc lavas, and exsolved magmatic fluid present as gaseous (CO2 and SO2+H2S) and liquid (Fe-rich brines) components. While rock-buffered fluids in arc settings are expected to vary compositionally from one another and from MOR fluids, it is the magmatic components that clearly differentiate arc emissions as being super-enriched in sulphur gases and ionic metals. These first systematic observations of spatially frequent and chemically robust fluid emissions from southern Kermadec arc forecast arcs as being a potentially important source of chemicals to the oceans.