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Comparative Composition, Diversity and Trophic Ecology of Sediment Macrofauna at Vents, Seeps and Organic Falls

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  • Sediments associated with hydrothermal venting, methane seepage and large organic falls such as whale, wood and plant detritus create deep-sea networks of soft-sediment habitats fueled, at least in part, by the oxidation of reduced chemicals. Biological studies at deep-sea vents, seeps and organic falls have looked at macrofaunal taxa, but there has yet to be a systematic comparison of the community-level attributes of sediment macrobenthos in various reducing ecosystems. Here we review key similarities and differences in the sediment-dwelling assemblages of each system with the goals of (1) generating a predictive framework for the exploration and study of newly identified reducing habitats, and (2) identifying taxa and communities that overlap across ecosystems. We show that deep-sea seep, vent and organic-fall sediments are highly heterogeneous. They sustain different geochemical and microbial processes that are reflected in a complex mosaic of habitats inhabited by a mixture of specialist (heterotrophic and symbiont-associated) and background fauna. Community-level comparisons reveal that vent, seep and organic-fall macrofauna are very distinct in terms of composition at the family level, although they share many dominant taxa among these highly sulphidic habitats. Stress gradients are good predictors of macrofaunal diversity at some sites, but habitat heterogeneity and facilitation often modify community structure. The biogeochemical differences across ecosystems and within habitats result in wide differences in organic utilization (i.e., food sources) and in the prevalence of chemosynthesis-derived nutrition. In the Pacific, vents, seeps and organic-falls exhibit distinct macrofaunal assemblages at broad-scales contributing to ß diversity. This has important implications for the conservation of reducing ecosystems, which face growing threats from human activities.
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  • Bernardino AF, Levin LA, Thurber AR, Smith CR (2012) Comparative Composition, Diversity and Trophic Ecology of Sediment Macrofauna at Vents, Seeps and Organic Falls. PLoS ONE 7(4): e33515. doi:10.1371/journal. pone.0033515
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  • 7
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  • 4
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  • A portion of the vent and seep studies reviewed here were supported in part by grants from Nautilus Minerals Niugini (Manus Basin), NSF OCE 04 35217and OCE 08 26254 to LAL. Whale, wood and kelp-fall studies were funded by grants from the National Undersea Research Center Alaska, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (now the West Coast and Polar Regions Undersea Research Center), and National Science Foundation Division of Ocean Sciences Grant 0096422 to CRS. This synthesis was supported by the Census of Marine Life (www.coml.org) through the ChEss project. AFB was supported by travel grants from the University of Sao Paulo and ChEss.
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