Association of deep-sea incirrate octopods with manganese crusts and nodule fields in the Pacific Ocean

Purser, Autun; Marcon, Yann; Hoving, Henk-Jan T.; Vecchione, Michael; Piatkowski, Uwe; Eason, Deborah E.; Bluhm, Hartmut; Boetius, Antje

doi:10.1016/j.cub.2016.10.052

Cited by 76 publications

(41 citation statements)

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“…Vecchione (2016) reports records of two families of cirrate octopods, based on identification from video images, from the French licence areas. It is likely that other cephalopod taxa are present in the CCZ, such as big-fin squid and incirrate octopods (Vecchione 2016; see also Purser et al 2016).…”

Section: Highlights In This Special Issuementioning

confidence: 99%

Editorial: Biodiversity of the Clarion Clipperton Fracture Zone

2017

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Section: Highlights In This Special Issuementioning

confidence: 99%

Editorial: Biodiversity of the Clarion Clipperton Fracture Zone

2017

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“…They are typically found at the sediment surface at an average density of 15 kg m −2 in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ, NE Pacific), 10 kg m −2 in the Peru Basin (SE Pacific) and 4.5 kg m −2 in the Central Indian Ocean Basin (Kuhn et al, 2017). Nodules provide hard substrate that is essential for some sessile epifauna and associated megafauna (Purser et al, 2016;Vanreusel et al, 2016).The extraction of polymetallic nodules will not only eliminate this hard substrate, but will also disturb and resuspend the surface sediment (Thiel and Tiefsee-Umweltschutz, 2001), which is critical for detritus feeding mobile epifauna and the biota that inhabit the sediment (Borowski and Thiel, 1998;Bluhm, 2001;Borowski, 2001).…”

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confidence: 99%

Has Phytodetritus Processing by an Abyssal Soft-Sediment Community Recovered 26 Years after an Experimental Disturbance?

et al. 2018

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The potential harvest of polymetallic nodules will heavily impact the abyssal, soft sediment ecosystem by removing sediment, hard substrate, and associated fauna inside mined areas. It is therefore important to know whether the ecosystem can recover from this disturbance and if so at which rate. The first objective of this study was to measure recovery of phytodetritus processing by the benthic food web from a sediment disturbance experiment in 1989. The second objective was to determine the role of holothurians in the uptake of fresh phytodetritus by the benthic food web. To meet both objectives, large benthic incubation chambers (CUBEs; 50 × 50 × 50 cm) were deployed inside plow tracks (with and without holothurian presence) and at a reference site (holothurian presence, only) at 4100 m water depth. Shortly after deployment, 13 C-and 15 N-labeled phytodetritus was injected in the incubation chambers and during the subsequent 3-day incubation period, water samples were taken five times to measure the production of 13 C-dissolved inorganic carbon over time. At the end of the incubation, holothurians and sediment samples were taken to determine biomass, densities and incorporation of 13 C and 15 N into bacteria, nematodes, macrofauna, and holothurians. For the first objective, the results showed that biomass of bacteria, nematodes and macrofauna did not differ between reference sites and plow track sites when holothurians were present. Additionally, meiofauna and macrofauna taxonomic composition was not significantly different between the sites. In contrast, total 13 C uptake by bacteria, nematodes and holothurians was significantly lower at plow track sites compared to reference sites, though the number of replicates was low. This result suggests that important ecosystem functions such as organic matter processing have not fully recovered from the disturbance that occurred 26 years prior to our study. For the second objective, the analysis indicated that holothurians incorporated 2.16 × 10 −3 mmol labile phytodetritus C m −2 d −1 into their biomass, which is one order of Stratmann et al.Phytodetritus Processing after Experimental Disturbance magnitude less as compared to bacteria, but 1.3 times higher than macrofauna and one order of magnitude higher than nematodes. Additionally, holothurians incorporated more phytodetritus carbon per unit biomass than macrofauna and meiofauna, suggesting a size-dependence in phytodetritus carbon uptake.

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“…Sedimentation rates in nodule areas are slow and range between 0.2 and 1.15 cm kyr −1 (Volz et al, 2018), while modelled sedimentation rates for a nodule mining scenario in the North Pacific were more than a thousand times higher than the natural background level (Aleynik et al, 2017). Such a large-scale mining operation is expected to directly impact the nodule-associated fauna (Purser et al, 2016;Vanreusel et al, 2016). However, deposition of sediment and nodule particles on the seafloor resulting from mining activities may also impact the typical abyssal softsediment fauna, but knowledge about the direct responses of those organisms to burial with such material is scarce.…”

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Responses of an abyssal meiobenthic community to short-term burial with crushed nodule particles in the south-east Pacific

et al. 2019

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Abstract. Increasing industrial metal demands due to rapid technological developments may drive the prospection and exploitation of deep-sea mineral resources such as polymetallic nodules. To date, the potential environmental consequences of mining operations in the remote deep sea are poorly known. Experimental studies are scarce, especially with regard to the effect of sediment and nodule debris depositions as a consequence of seabed mining. To elucidate the potential effects of the deposition of crushed polymetallic nodule particles on abyssal meiobenthos communities, a short (11 d) in situ experiment at the seafloor of the Peru Basin in the south-east Pacific Ocean was conducted in 2015. We covered abyssal, soft sediment with approx. 2 cm of crushed nodule particles and sampled the sediment after 11 d of incubation at 4200 m water depth. Short-term ecological effects on the meiobenthos community were studied including changes in their composition and vertical distribution in the sediment as well as nematode genus composition. Additionally, copper burden in a few similar-sized but randomly selected nematodes was measured by means of micro X-ray fluorescence (µXRF). At the end of the experiment, 46±1 % of the total meiobenthos occurred in the added crushed nodule layer, while abundances decreased in the underlying 2 cm compared to the same depth interval in undisturbed sediments. Densities and community composition in the deeper 2–5 cm layers remained similar in covered and uncovered sediments. The migratory response into the added nodule material was particularly seen in polychaetes (73±14 %, relative abundance across all depth layers) copepods (71±6 %), nauplii (61±9 %) and nematodes (43±1 %). While the dominant nematode genera in the added nodule material did not differ from those in underlying layers or the undisturbed sediments, feeding type proportions in this layer were altered, with a 9 % decrease of non-selective deposit feeders and an 8 % increase in epistrate feeders. Nematode tissue copper burden did not show elevated copper toxicity resulting from burial with crushed nodule particles. Our results indicate that burial with a 2 cm layer of crushed nodule particles induces changes in the vertical structure of meiobenthos inside the sediment and an alteration of nematode feeding type proportions within a short time frame of 11 d, while nematode tissue copper burden remains unchanged. These findings considerably contribute to the understanding of the short-term responses of meiobenthos to physical disturbances in the deep sea.

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Association of deep-sea incirrate octopods with manganese crusts and nodule fields in the Pacific Ocean

Cited by 76 publications

References 10 publications

Editorial: Biodiversity of the Clarion Clipperton Fracture Zone

Editorial: Biodiversity of the Clarion Clipperton Fracture Zone

Has Phytodetritus Processing by an Abyssal Soft-Sediment Community Recovered 26 Years after an Experimental Disturbance?

Responses of an abyssal meiobenthic community to short-term burial with crushed nodule particles in the south-east Pacific

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