Much interest in the astrobiology community has been generated by the discovery of biological communities populating deep-ocean hydrothermal vents (i.e. "black smokers"). These ecosystems rely on chemoautotrophic bacteria/archaea extremophiles as primary producers living at 40-80 C temperatures.
However, the lifetimes of these black smokers have been estimated to be of order 25 years. How are these biological communities able to migrate to newer, active vent systems in conditions of extreme cold and high pressure?