Discovery of chemosynthesis
Descubrimiento de la quimiosíntesis
- Date
- 1880s-1890 · confidence medium
- Place
- Strasbourg, France
- Credited to
- Sergei Winogradsky
- Field
- Life & health
What was discovered
Studying sulfur, iron and nitrogen bacteria, Winogradsky shows that certain microorganisms obtain all their energy by oxidising inorganic compounds, without needing sunlight or organic matter.
Winogradsky carried out this research between Strasbourg and Zurich through the 1880s before formulating it in 1890; the term 'chemosynthesis' was coined shortly after by botanist Wilhelm Pfeffer.
What it led to
- Recognition of a third mode of nutrition alongside photo- and heterotrophy
- Explanation of hydrothermal-vent ecosystems without sunlight
- Microbiology of the sulfur, iron and nitrogen cycles