High occurrence of thermophilic bacteria isolated from hydrothermal vent plumes in Australian-Antarctic Ridge, Southern ocearn

Abstract

The intermediate spreading Australian-Antarctic Ridge (AAR) in the Southern Ocean is one of the largest unexplored regions of the global mid-ocean ridge systems because of limited accessibility due to harsh environment. Although activities of hydrothermal vents are supposed to be present in AAR, microbiological data are not available on cultivatable bacteria associated with those environments.