In 2015, a new island appeared in the South Pacific, which opened up new opportunities for scientists. The emergence of a new island allows you to learn how ecosystems are born, from pioneer microbes that colonize new lands to the emergence of large animals and plants.

But as Science Alert notes, Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Haapai (Hunga-Tonga) did not last long - after it was formed as a result of a volcanic eruption in 2015, it was almost completely destroyed by an eruption in early 2022..

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But in the seven years of its existence, he revealed several secrets. In a new study, scientists talk about the unexpected appearance on the island of a community of microbes that metabolize sulfur and atmospheric gases.. They look like organisms that inhabit completely different habitats: hot springs or deep-sea hydrothermal vents..

" We thought we'd see the organisms you'd find when the glacier retreats, or cyanobacteria, the more typical species of early colonizers, but instead we found a unique group of bacteria that metabolize sulfur and atmospheric gases,"

Dragon and his fellow researchers collected 32 soil samples from the island, on the surface from sea level to the top of a crater about 120 meters high.. They then extracted and sequenced the DNA from the samples..

The scientists note that the plants colonized the new island quite quickly, probably due to the transfer of seeds in bird droppings.. But the researchers focused their attention on regions without vegetation..

They found bacteria and archaea in all their samples from the volcano cone, although these microbes were less diverse than microbes from nearby plant areas and very different from each other..

It would be expected if the first microbes appeared on the island from water or bird droppings, but it seems that the first colonies did not form there.. Scientists suspect bacteria originated deep underground.

“The microbes were most similar to those found in hydrothermal vents, hot springs such as Yellowstone, and other volcanic systems.. Our assumption is that the microbes came from such sources,” Dragon said..

Similar studies are also something unique..

Strong eruptions happen often, but the development of an ecosystem on a completely new piece of land is very rare.. Hunga Tonga is only the third land mass to appear above water and have existed for more than a year in the past 150 years.. And the first in the tropics.

Earlier, scientists said that the eruption of the underwater volcano Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Haapai, which occurred in January last year, led to the fact that a huge amount of water entered the atmosphere. According to scientists, this could lead to the growth of the ozone hole in the coming years..