https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-2019-189 Preprint. Discussion started: 20 June 2019 c Author(s) 2019. CC BY 4.0 License. 1 Successional patterns of (trace) metals and microorganisms in the Rainbow 2 hydrothermal vent plume at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge 3 Sabine Haalboom1,*, David M. Price1,*,#, Furu Mienis1, Judith D.L van Bleijswijk1, Henko C. de 4 Stigter1, Harry J. Witte1, Gert-Jan Reichart1,2, Gerard C.A. Duineveld1 5 1 NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, department of Ocean Systems, and Utrecht University, PO Box 59, 6 1790 AB Den Burg, Texel, The Netherlands 7 2 Utrecht University, Faculty of Geosciences, 3584 CD Utrecht, The Netherlands 8 * These authors contributed equally to this work 9 # Current address: University of Southampton, Waterfront Campus, European Way, Southampton, UK, 10 SO14 3ZH. 11
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[email protected] 12 13 Keywords: Rainbow vent; Epsilonproteobacteria; Hydrothermal vent plume; Deep-sea mining; Rare 14 earth elements; Seafloor massive sulfides 15 16 Abstract 17 Hydrothermal vent fields found at mid-ocean ridges emit hydrothermal fluids which disperse as neutrally 18 buoyant plumes. From these fluids seafloor massive sulfides (SMS) deposits are formed which are being 19 explored as possible new mining sites for (trace) metals and rare earth elements (REE). It has been 20 suggested that during mining activities large amounts of suspended matter will appear in the water column 21 due to excavation processes, and due to discharge of mining waste from the surface vessel. Understanding 22 how natural hydrothermal plumes evolve as they spread away from their source and how they affect their 23 surrounding environment may provide some analogies for the behaviour of the dilute distal part of 24 chemically enriched mining plumes.