1 Introduction Hydrothermal vent (HV) systems are among the most challenging marine ecosystems on the planet. HV studies began in the 1970s, and soon thereafter, it has been hypothesized that life may have evolved in HVs because of the similarity with extreme conditions on early Earth after the planet was cooling down (Ka et al., 2011). Since the discovery of HVs in the deep sea of the Galapagos trench in 1977, several new biota were identified from this environment.
