Photosynthesis can occur in the absence of sunlight. Beatty
et al. (2005) discovered a species of phototrophic sulphur bacteria from a
deep-sea hydrothermal vent located 2400 metres beneath the Pacific Ocean, off
the coast of Mexico. At such depths, there is virtually no sunlight since
sunlight can only penetrate down to a few hundred metres into the ocean. This
species of bacteria is a type of green sulphur bacteria which performs
photosynthesis using the faint light emitted by the hot hydrothermal vent. The
green sulphur bacterium harvests the minuscule amount of light that is
available to oxidize sulphur compounds to reduce carbon dioxide to produce
organic material. It achieves photosynthetic growth at extremely low light
intensities.
Cardenas et al. (2013) performed a quantitative assessment
of the photosynthetic potential around deep-sea hydrothermal vents. Here, the
photons of light required for photosynthesis comes from hot water. This is
because anything with a temperature will emit radiation. For example, as the
temperature of an object goes up, it begins to glow from dark red, to red, to
orange, and so on; emitting more radiation as the temperature increases.
Likewise, hot water spewing out from a hydrothermal vent will emit radiation,
with most of it being infrared radiation as well as a tiny amount of optical
radiation. Cardenas et al. (2013) show that the illumination from hot water
around hydrothermal vents is sufficient for photosynthesis, albeit at rather
low rates. Nevertheless, good rates of photosynthesis can be achieved if the
organism can utilize infrared photons in addition to optical photos and/or if
the water spewing from the hydrothermal vent is very hot.
.jpg)
Europa
The discovery by Beatty et al. (2005) shows that
photosynthesis is not just limited to the surface of the Earth and photosynthetic
growth can take place using light other than sunlight. For this reason, geothermally
illuminated regions such as deep-sea hydrothermal vents are particularly interesting
because it opens up the possibility that photosynthesis can occur on worlds in
the solar system that are located much further from the Sun than Earth. A good
example is Europa, a tidally-heated moon of Jupiter with a global ocean of
liquid water beneath its frozen icy surface. It is reasonable to consider the
presence of photosynthetic life living off the faint amount of light emitted by
hydrothermal vents at the bottom of Europa’s dark ocean.
References:
- Beatty et al. (2005), “An obligately photosynthetic
bacterial anaerobe from a deep-sea hydrothermal vent”, Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences 102 (26): 9306-10
- Cardenas et al. (2013), “The potential for photosynthesis
in hydrothermal vents: a new avenue for life in the Universe?”, arXiv:1304.6127
[astro-ph.EP]