Riftia

Meet Colleen Cavanaugh, who you heard featured on Riftia podcast. We asked her a few questions about her work and what she loves about science.

Where do you work?

Harvard University - Dept. of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology; summers - Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

What do you study?

Teaching and research on microbial diversity and symbiosis, lecturing (and preaching) to all about bacteria/archaea as the good guys (the vast majority) from biogeochemical cycles to human microbiome (vs "germs").

What are three titles you would give yourself?

Microbial ecologist, “gleek”, lovely wife and mom

What do you like to do when you are not working?

Hmmm....when you love what you do it's not work.  In addition- fun with family, aerobics, walks with elder pup, AI enthusiast.

What do you like most about science?

Discovery, intuitive leaps, learning something new (typically many things) every day.  Students!!

The Podcast of Life series is brought to you by the Encyclopedia of Life and Atlantic Public Media with a consortium of marine education network partners. The podcasts highlight marine species with high kid appeal and rich, relevant classroom resources available through the education partners. Each activity also covers one or more of the Ocean Literacy principles.

See below for activities and links to resources:

Activity: Living With the Heat
Source: NOAA Ocean Explorer 
Overview: Students learn about chemosynthesis and attempt to identify the feeding pathways in hydrothermal vent communities.
Age Level: ages 10-12, grades 5-6
Subject Areas: Ocean Life
Keywords: chemosynthesis, discussion, food web, hydrothermal vents, tube worms (riftia worms)
United States National Science Standards:
Ocean Literacy Principles (OLP): 5c, 5d, 5g

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Activity: InVENT a Deep-Sea Invertebrate
Source: NOAA Ocean Explorer
Overview: After learning about the environmental conditions at hydrothermal vents, students design an invertebrate capable of living under those conditions.
Age Level: ages 10-12, grades 5-6
Subject Areas: Ocean Life
Keywords: adaptation, chemosynthesis, hydrothermal vents, tube worms (riftia worms)
United States National Science Standards:
Ocean Literacy Principles (OLP): 5d, 5g

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Activity: Who Promised You a Rose Garden?
Source: NOAA Ocean Explorer
Overview: Students research hydrothermal vent organisms and discuss the adaptations (including chemosynthesis) that allow them to live in such a harsh environment. They then answer questions about a map of the Rose Garden vent site showing the distribution of organisms.
Age Level: ages, 12-15 grades 7-9
Subject Areas: Ocean Life Keywords: adaptation, biology, chemosynthesis, classroom research activity, discussion, food web, hydrothermal vents, map/chart, symbiosis, tube worms (riftia worms)
United States National Science Standards:
Ocean Literacy Principles (OLP): 5d, 5g,

Images:

Audio extras:

Most of the creatures that share the planet with us are unknown and unnamed, and there are five billion of them in every teaspoon of soil or water—they’re even inside us. Researcher Colleen Cavanaugh explains.

Heard of CSI, Crime Scene Investigation? Well, Colleen Cavanaugh has plans for MSI—Microbial Science Investigators, where the good microbes are the heroes.

Cool facts:

Fully grown Riftia are tubes made of chitin, the same tough substance found in the exoskeletons of insects and crustaceans and the “beak” of the octopus. Learn more on EOL

Riftia larvae drift searching for a home. When they detect the right chemicals in the water, they settle down on a patch of cooled lava and form a new tube worm colony. Learn more on EOL

Instead of a gut, vent worms have a sac called a trophosome. The trophosome is home to the billions of sulfur-eating bacteria that provide the vent worm with its nourishment. Learn more on EOL

Vent worms and other fauna found at hydrothermal vents flourish in water temperatures that are hot enough to meld lead!

Riftia links:

Travel with the submersible Alvin on a virtual dive to a black smoker. You’ll learn how scientists think vents might form and discover how Alvin navigates under water.

Visit these links to learn more about Riftia’s amazing habitat, the deep-sea oases known as “black smokers.”

Learn how the world’s deepest hydrothermal vent was discovered in April 2010, three miles down in the Cayman Trough in the Caribbean. Read the expedition blog of the researchers on board the RRS James Cook.

Try your hand at the hydrothermal vent crossword at the American Museum of Natural History’s extensive Black Smoker website.

Read more about it:

Diving to a Deep-Sea Volcano (Scientists in the Field) by Kenneth Mallory, Houghton Mifflin, 2006.

The Octopus’s Garden: Hydrothermal Vents and Other Mysteries of the Deep Sea by Cindy Lee van Dover, Helix Books, 1996.