Cold-water corals in a cold seep area on the northern continental slopes of the South China sea and their isotopic characteristics

Xu, Antao; Chen, Zhong; Tian, Yuhang; Shu, Chan; Zheng, Xiaoxu; Li, Gang; Yan, Wen; Zhao, Meixia

doi:10.1016/j.dsr.2019.05.003

Cited by 5 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 77 publications

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“…Carbonates from hydrothermal sites from Mariana Forearc [66] and Lost City [67] show higher δ 13 C values relative to the authigenic carbonates and CWCs from site GMGS2-09B, indicating that the research area is not influenced by low-temperature hydrothermal processes. Our data are comparable with the ranges of δ 13 C and δ 18 O values in CWCs from the North Atlantic [68] and the Japan Sea [69], particularly those from the Dongsha area in the SCS [70,71], which does not have any cold-seep activity. As such, our results do not support the idea that CWCs take up methane-derived carbon at fluid-seepage areas.…”

Section: Comparison Of C and O Isotope Signaturessupporting

confidence: 82%

Cold-Water Corals in Gas Hydrate Drilling Cores from the South China Sea: Occurrences, Geochemical Characteristics and Their Relationship to Methane Seepages

Deng

Fang

et al. 2019

Minerals

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Cold-water corals (CWCs) are frequently found at cold seep areas. However, the relationship between fluid seepage and CWC development is not clear. Here, for the first time, we report the occurrences, species identification, mineralogy, carbon and oxygen isotopes, as well as elemental compositions of fossil CWC skeletons from gas-hydrate-bearing sediment in drilling cores from the South China Sea (SCS). Three sites (GMGS-08, GMGS-09B, and GMGS-16) were investigated but CWCs were only found at one site (GMGS-09B). Interestingly, the CWCs were found in three horizons and they were all embedded with authigenic carbonates. Three genera of fossil CWCs (Crispatotrochus sp., Solenosmilia sp. and Enallopsammia sp.) were identified. The CWC fragments are predominantly aragonite. The CWCs exhibit δ13C values between −8.4‰ and −0.6‰ that are significantly higher than δ13C values of the associated seep carbonates (δ13C values with an average of −55.6‰, n = 19), which indicates a carbon source other than methane for the CWCs. It appears that authigenic carbonates provide a substratum for coral colonization. Bathymetric high points, appropriate water temperature and stronger bottom-water currents at site GMGS-09B might be crucial to keep conditions favorable for the growth of CWCs in the studied area. In addition, high trace-element concentrations of Cr, Ni, Pb, U, Ba, Th, and Sr suggest that the CWCs are influenced by strong fluid seepage that can reach the water-sediment interface, and associated microbial activity. Hence, it also becomes evident that CWCs in hydrocarbon-rich seepage areas not only provide a critical constraint on the impact of fluid emission on the bottom water chemistry, but also are likely to be very precise recorders of the end time of cold seep activity.

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Section: Comparison Of C and O Isotope Signaturessupporting

confidence: 82%

Cold-Water Corals in Gas Hydrate Drilling Cores from the South China Sea: Occurrences, Geochemical Characteristics and Their Relationship to Methane Seepages

Deng

Fang

et al. 2019

Minerals

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“…Furthermore, the proportion of live tissue on C. delta colonies was correlated with chemosynthetic-derived δ 13 C and δ 15 N values suggesting that C. delta colonies benefited from ingesting chemosynthetically fixed carbon (Figure S1). This contrasts with most previous studies where stable isotope values did not indicate chemosynthetic food input for coral species collected in situ, including fossil coral samples (e.g., Deng et al, 2019;Xu et al, 2019).…”

Section: Proximity To Cold Seeps Affects Diet Of C Delta and Paramuri...contrasting

confidence: 96%

“…Previous stable isotope analyses showed that corals living near seeps feed mostly on photosynthetically derived suspended organic matter and plankton and failed to detect significant input from chemosynthetic sources (Becker et al, 2009 ). It was thought that corals may be a later successional stage that colonize carbonate outcrops after most surface expression of seepage has subsided, and thus, corals occupy seep habitats primarily to take advantage of the available carbonate substrate (Cordes et al, 2008 ; Fisher et al, 2007 ; Xu et al, 2019 ). Here, colonies of two coral species, Callogorgia delta and Paramuricea sp.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Previous stable isotope studies showed that photosynthetic‐derived food is the major food source in deep‐sea corals, even near cold seeps (e.g., Becker et al, 2009 ). A signature of chemosynthetically derived food in their tissue or a mechanism to adapt to cold seeps has not been found (Rincón‐Tomás et al, 2019 ; Xu et al, 2019 ). Therefore, it was proposed that coral species mainly occupy seep habitats because the authigenic carbonates provide suitable substrate but only after the seepage has largely faded and hydrocarbons/oil are no longer released.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Capacity of deep‐sea corals to obtain nutrition from cold seeps aligned with microbiome reorganization

Osman

Vohsen

Girard

et al. 2022

Global Change Biology

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Cold seeps in the deep sea harbor various animals that have adapted to utilize seepage chemicals with the aid of chemosynthetic microbes that serve as primary producers.Corals are among the animals that live near seep habitats and yet, there is a lack of evidence that corals gain benefits and/or incur costs from cold seeps. Here, we focused on Callogorgia delta and Paramuricea sp. type B3 that live near and far from visual signs of currently active seepage at five sites in the deep Gulf of Mexico. We tested whether these corals rely on chemosynthetically-derived food in seep habitats and how the proximity to cold seeps may influence; (i) coral colony traits (i.e., health status, growth rate, regrowth after sampling, and branch loss) and associated epifauna, (ii) associated microbiome, and (iii) host transcriptomes. Stable isotope data showed that many coral colonies utilized chemosynthetically derived food, but the feeding strategy differed by coral species. The microbiome composition of C. delta, unlike Paramuricea sp., varied significantly between seep and non-seep colonies and both coral species were associated with various sulfur-oxidizing bacteria (SUP05). Interestingly, the relative abundances of SUP05 varied among seep and non-seep colonies and were strongly correlated with carbon and nitrogen stable isotope values. In contrast, the proximity to cold seeps did not have a measurable effect on gene expression, colony traits, or associated epifauna in coral species. Our work provides the first evidence that some corals may gain benefits from living near cold seeps with apparently limited costs to the colonies. Cold seeps provide not only hard substrate but also food to coldwater corals. Furthermore, restructuring of the microbiome communities (particularly SUP05) is likely the key adaptive process to aid corals in utilizing seepage-derived carbon. This highlights that those deep-sea corals may upregulate particular microbial symbiont communities to cope with environmental gradients.

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“…Huang et al (2015) suggested that the SCS hosts a richness of reef corals comparable to the Coral Triangle area. Four families of Scleractinia detected in this study were also reported previously (Rodriguez-Lanetty and Hoegh-Guldberg, 2002;Chen et al, 2019;Xu et al, 2019;Li et al, 2022;Zeng et al, 2022). Furthermore, rare species from Brachiopoda, Bryozoa, Nemertea, and Platyhelminthes were easily neglected through traditional methods, but were more easily detected by metabarcoding, suggesting high efficiency of this novel method.…”

supporting

confidence: 84%

Metabarcoding survey of meroplankton communities in the South China Sea and Philippine Sea: Shedding light on inter-basin biogeography in the West Pacific

et al. 2022

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Planktonic larvae (meroplankton) plays an important role in both benthic and pelagic ecosystems. The meroplankton study of South China Sea (SCS) and Philippine Sea (PS) may be particularly important, where they could serve as vectors for the influx of Pacific species into the East Indies Triangle (global marine biodiversity center). Here, we employed a metabarcoding method to investigate the geographical distribution pattern of meroplankton among SCS and PS. Different primers and reference databases were tested, for a better and more reliable interpretation of the current results and improvement of the method. In this study, metabarcoding was efficient for meroplankton study with high taxonomic resolution and good accuracy. COI against NCBI NT database showed the best taxonomy annotation efficiency, followed by 18S V1-V2, then 18S V4. The SILVA database showed similar performance to the NCBI NT database for the two 18S primers. The meroplankton diversity of SCS is higher than that of PS, and both communities are dominated by Polychaeta, Mollusca, Arthropoda and Echinodermata. Meroplankton geographical patterns are significantly different between the two basins, possibly due to the different distribution of their benthic adult, as well as the influence of five key environmental factors (IC, SCM, SST, SSS and DO). Our results suggest that the unidirectional Kuroshio Current intrusion may play an important role in shaping the biogeographical pattern in the west Pacific, by facilitating planktonic-larvae flowing into the northern SCS from the Pacific, on the contrary, limiting planktonic-larvae spreading out.

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Cold-water corals in a cold seep area on the northern continental slopes of the South China sea and their isotopic characteristics

Cited by 5 publications

References 77 publications

Cold-Water Corals in Gas Hydrate Drilling Cores from the South China Sea: Occurrences, Geochemical Characteristics and Their Relationship to Methane Seepages

Cold-Water Corals in Gas Hydrate Drilling Cores from the South China Sea: Occurrences, Geochemical Characteristics and Their Relationship to Methane Seepages

Capacity of deep‐sea corals to obtain nutrition from cold seeps aligned with microbiome reorganization

Metabarcoding survey of meroplankton communities in the South China Sea and Philippine Sea: Shedding light on inter-basin biogeography in the West Pacific

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