Re: Is there more photosynthesis in the oceans than on dry land?

In article <42BDE987.6020409@xxxxxxxxxxx>,
Rafael Almeida <rafaelc@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>bae@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
>> In article <d9k9ij$c42$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
>> Rafael Almeida <rafaelc@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>
>>>Ivan Kobrinsky wrote:
>>>
>>>>For this feat they are using completely special light.
>>>>Instead of the sun the green sulfur bacteria use the weak
>>>>jets of hot sources of the deep sea for their photosynthesis.
>>>
>>>Hum... photo-synthesis, photo is greek for light, right? The bacterias
>>>you described seems to use the heat energy to do whatever is done and
>>>not light energy, therefore it couldn't be called photosynthesis, could
>>>it? I'm not a biologist and i don't even know much about it, but that
>>>just seemed wrong.
>>
>> It seemed strange to me too, but if these hot water jets are as hot as
>> 350C, they would be hot enough to emit some near-infrared and even a
>> bit of red light by black-body radiation, at the tail end of the curve.
>
>Still, even if it emits a little red light the energy source would be
>heat, as the generates little light. For what i know any eletromagnetic
>wave that we can't see is just eletromagnetic wave, not light :)

Well, if the reaction is the usual one in photosynthesis, where a photon
is the energy source, even if it isn't a photon of human-visible light,
I think we'd probably have to call it photosynthesis. There are lots of
ways of acquiring usable energy from temperature differences, including
steam engines, etc, but I don't think any living organisms use them. If
anyone knows of one, please correct me! I suppose a deep ocean vent,
where water at 4C is adjacent to water at 350C would be a place to look
for such bizarre and hard to imagine adaptations.

I'm very curious to know more about these bacteria, and whether energy
from this light source is a significant source of energy to them, or an
adjunct to the well-known chemosynthesis based on oxidizing H2S popular
with Archaeobacteria in unusual environments. I hope Ivan can provide
us with some sources of information.

.

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