It's only once they have ingested enough
microbes from seawater and food that they become poisonous.
Not exact matches
The researchers knew how much oxygen should have diffused down into each section of sediment
from the
seawater, so any «missing» oxygen meant
microbes had consumed it.
The
microbes (bacteria and Archaea) which form the base of the food chain are chemosynthetic, using energy
from hydrogen sulfide in the vent fluid, and oxygen and carbon dioxide
from the
seawater, to create simple sugars.