Researchers at the University of Waterloo have found an environmentally friendly way to explore life in the depths of the ocean.
Researchers at the University of Waterloo have found an environmentally friendly way to explore life in the depths of the ocean.
Using a new application of a sampling technique called solid phase microextraction (SPME), researchers collected samples from deep-sea vent ecosystems to study the biological and ecological processes that occur there, without damaging the surrounding organisms.
“The deep-sea vents that we are studying are the type of environment that existed at the beginning of earth’s creation,” said Janusz Pawliszyn, a chemistry professor at Waterloo and an author of this study. “Understanding the ecology and chemistry around these vents could eventually give us information on how life originated.”
SPME is an environmentally responsible option because it eliminates the use of large amounts of liquid traditionally needed to isolate molecules from water samples at the surface. In SPME analysis, a thin film coating is exposed to a water sample, directly absorbing small carbon-based molecules used for analysis.
Read more at University of Waterloo
Image: The SPME sampler being held by a remotely operated vehicle at the underwater sampling location in the South Pacific Ocean. Image credit: NOAA and Schmidt Ocean Institute.
