Benthic infaunal distributions in shallow hydrothermal vent sediments

Melwani, A. R.; Kim, Stacy L.

doi:10.1016/j.actao.2007.10.008

Cited by 30 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…These taxa are most likely a subset of the surrounding benthic community rather than specialized organisms adapted to a chemosynthetic metabolism as found in deep-sea hydrothermal vents. A result similar to ours was found in shallow hydrothermal vent systems near southern California and the Gulf of California (Melwani and Kim 2008).…”

Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 91%

“…Several such systems that have been studied in some detail include sites in the Mediterranean and Aegean seas (Thiermann et al 1997, Gamenick et al 1998, Morri et al 1999, Cocito et al 2000, the Kurile Islands (Tarasov et al 1990, Sorokin et al 2003, Kamenev et al 2004), New Zealand (Kamenev et al 1993), the Gulf of California and southern California (Melwani and Kim 2008), and several sites in Papua New Guinea including Rabaul harbor (Tarasov et al 1999) and Ambitle Island (Pichler and Dix 1996, Pichler and Veizer 1999, Pichler et al 1999a. The last site was the focus of the current study.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Changes in Benthic Macrofauna Associated with a Shallow-Water Hydrothermal Vent Gradient in Papua New Guinea

et al. 2010

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Infaunal macroinvertebrates were characterized along an environmental gradient from a shallow-water hydrothermal vent located at Tutum Bay, Ambitle Island, Papua New Guinea. Samples were collected at three sites located at 7.5, 60, and 150 m from the vent and from a nonhydrothermal reference site located to the north. Temperature and arsenic concentration were found to decrease and pH increased with distance away from the vent. At each site, five replicate core samples were taken randomly from a 1 m 2 sampling grid. All infaunal invertebrates >500 mm were sorted, identified to the lowest practical taxonomic level and counted. Results from the macrofauna data show a strong trend of increasing abundance, species richness and diversity relative to distance away from the vent, but even at 150 m the benthic macrofauna appeared to be depressed relative to the reference site. Mollusks were completely absent 7.5 m from the vent, rare at 60 m, and abundant at 150 m, suggesting that the low pH values associated with the hydrothermal activity play an important role in the benthic community structure.Shallow-water hydrothermal vents occur worldwide, but relatively few studies have been carried out on the benthic community structure of these systems (Thiermann et al. 1997). Several such systems that have been studied in some detail include sites in the Mediterranean and Aegean seas (Thiermann et al. 1997, Gamenick et al. 1998, Morri et al. 1999, Cocito et al. 2000, the Kurile Islands (Tarasov et al. 1990, Sorokin et al. 2003, Kamenev et al. 2004), New Zealand (Kamenev et al. 1993, the Gulf of California and southern California (Melwani and Kim 2008), and several sites in Papua New Guinea including Rabaul harbor (Tarasov et al. 1999) and Ambitle Island (Pichler and Dix 1996, Pichler and Veizer 1999, Pichler et al. 1999a. The last site was the focus of the current study.Previous work carried out on Ambitle Island focused on the geochemistry of the hydrothermal fluids and surrounding sediment. Vent and pore waters were enriched in several elements, but, most notably, arsenic concentrations were 275 times that of normal seawater (Pichler et al. 1999b). Despite the elevated concentration of arsenic, the surrounding reef habitat and fauna appear to be unaffected (Pichler and Dix 1996). This is likely due to the removal of arsenic from the water column via the precipitation of Fe (III) oxyhydroxides Veizer 1999, Pichler et al. 1999a). Because of that previous work, we focused this study on the influence of arsenic, along with other vent-related factors such as temperature, pH, and sediment characteristics, on the benthic macrofauna near the Ambitle Island vent.Arsenic is naturally occurring in Ambitle Island groundwater, which is the source of the hydrothermal fluids at these vents (PichPacific Science (2010), vol. 64, no. 3:391- (Inskeep et al. 2002, Oremland and Stolz 2003, Oremland et al. 2005. In addition, eukaryotic organisms can convert inorganic arsenic into organic compounds via methylation (Andreae 1979, Kit...

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Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 91%

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confidence: 99%

Changes in Benthic Macrofauna Associated with a Shallow-Water Hydrothermal Vent Gradient in Papua New Guinea

et al. 2010

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“…Some taxa (e.g. solemyid, lucinid and thyasirid bivalves and desmodorid nematodes) develop symbiotic relationships with sulphur-oxidising bacteria, but they are unable to tolerate high temperatures, as well as the sulphides and metals released by vent emissions (Dando et al 1995, Melwani & Kim 2008.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Meiofaunal diversity and assemblage structure in a shallow-water hydrothermal vent in the Pacific Ocean

Zeppilli¹,

Danovaro²

2009

Aquat. Biol.

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Despite their ubiquitous distribution in tectonically active coastal zones, shallow-water vents have been much less explored than deep-sea vents in terms of biodiversity and adaptations to extreme conditions. We investigated the meiofaunal biodiversity and environmental variables at distances of 10, 100 and 200 cm from a shallow-water hydrothermal vent in the equatorial Pacific (Sulawesi, Indonesia). Meiofaunal abundance and the richness of higher taxa increased from the site of fluid-vent emission (where temperatures of the fluids and sediments reached approximately 90°C) to the control sediments (200 cm from the vent, with no sign of effects from the vent fluids). Nematode species richness was also high in the intermediate station, where bottom sediment temperature reached 55°C. These data suggest that some nematode species were able to survive in conditions typically hostile to metazoan life. Gas emissions also influenced the biochemical composition of the sediment organic matter in proximity to the vent and favoured the growth of a large photo-and/or chemo-autotrophic prokaryotic biomass. This biomass represented a potentially important food source for predator/omnivore nematodes and influenced the trophic structure of benthic assemblages. Since the metazoan species found in proximity to the vent were a subset of those inhabiting control sediments, but were characterised by lower abundances, it might be hypothesized that the populations close to the vent are the result of colonization from adjacent areas.

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“…This represents one of the characteristics of shallow water hydrothermal vents: their singularity (therefore unreplicated). Each vent is associated to a specific substratum type and depth, and the physical and chemical properties of the fluid can be quite variable (Melwani & Kim, 2008). Even the temperature range can be of considerable magnitude (Vedel & Depledge, 1995;Wallenstein et al, 2013).…”

Section: Water Fluxes and Solutesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In Ladeira da Velha a freshwater input (small stream) is visible running from land to the seawater (Couto et al, 2010;Couto et al, 2012). Extreme environments can result in a depletion of some of the species present in the surrounding areas, except the ones that exhibit some tolerance to extreme conditions (Melwani & Kim, 2008), which is reflected in differences on species number and abundances (D'Udekem d 'Acoz & Wirtz, 1999;Ávila et al, 2004;Ávila et al, 2007;Mendes, 2008).…”

Section: Conclusion and Directions For Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%