Habitat characterization of the Vema Fracture Zone and Puerto Rico Trench

Devey, Colin W.; Augustin, Nico; Brandt, Angelika; Brenke, Nils; Köhler, Janna; Lins, Lidia; Schmidt, Christopher J.; Yeo, Isobel

doi:10.1016/j.dsr2.2018.02.003

Cited by 17 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 49 publications

(52 reference statements)

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“…1 and SI Appendix, Fig. S1) building upon and significantly expanding the scope of a previous publication by Devey et al (31). Multibeam mapping was performed with the onboard Kongsberg EM 122 multibeam echosounder (Kongsberg Maritime).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We defined threshold values for both parameters below which the presence of hard bottom seems unlikely (low potential) and above which exposed hard rock is likely to exist (high potential) in order to make assumptions about the occurrence of hard substrates. These thresholds are ground-truthed by seafloor sampling with geologic rock dredges and EBS (31,37) (Figs. 3 and 4 and SI Appendix, Table S1) as well as seafloor observations (AUV photo surveys).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…sampling (17,(30)(31)(32). Data from the lower bathyal at the northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge show a relationship between slope angle and sediment coverage where moderate slopes are characterized by occasional rock outcrops while steep slopes are dominated by bare rock surfaces (30,33).…”

Section: Significancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Atlantic abyssal region is cross-cut by many "fracture zones"-intraplate traces of active plate-boundary faults at the spreading axis. We have previously presented geological data from several biological sampling sites within one such zone, the Vema Fracture Zone (VFZ), producing high-resolution habitat maps for the interpretation of species distribution data in several regions of interest (31). These maps of distinct sites showed exposed rock and an overall higher than expected heterogeneity comprising varying slope angles at various sizes and spatial coverage.…”

Section: Significancementioning

confidence: 99%

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Discovery of widely available abyssal rock patches reveals overlooked habitat type and prompts rethinking deep-sea biodiversity

Riehl

Wölfl

Augustin

et al. 2020

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Habitat heterogeneity and species diversity are often linked. On the deep seafloor, sediment variability and hard-substrate availability influence geographic patterns of species richness and turnover. The assumption of a generally homogeneous, sedimented abyssal seafloor is at odds with the fact that the faunal diversity in some abyssal regions exceeds that of shallow-water environments. Here we show, using a ground-truthed analysis of multibeam sonar data, that the deep seafloor may be much rockier than previously assumed. A combination of bathymetry data, ruggedness, and backscatter from a trans-Atlantic corridor along the Vema Fracture Zone, covering crustal ages from 0 to 100 Ma, show rock exposures occurring at all crustal ages. Extrapolating to the whole Atlantic, over 260,000 km2of rock habitats potentially occur along Atlantic fracture zones alone, significantly increasing our knowledge about abyssal habitat heterogeneity. This implies that sampling campaigns need to be considerably more sophisticated than at present to capture the full deep-sea habitat heterogeneity and biodiversity.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Significancementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Significancementioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Discovery of widely available abyssal rock patches reveals overlooked habitat type and prompts rethinking deep-sea biodiversity

Riehl

Wölfl

Augustin

et al. 2020

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…In some soft sediment regions, islands of hard substrate are provided by polymetallic nodules, authigenically formed deposits of metals, which grow at approximate rates of 2 to 20 mm per million years (Guichard et al, 1978;Kuhn et al, 2017). These nodules have the shape and size of cauliflower, cannon balls or potatoes, and are found on the sediment surface and in the sediment at depths between 4000 and 6000 m in areas of the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Ocean (Devey et al, 2018;Kuhn et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Faunal carbon flows in the abyssal plain food web of the Peru Basin have not recovered during 26 years from an experimental sediment disturbance

Stratmann¹,

Lins²,

Purser³

et al. 2018

Preprint

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Abstract. Future deep-sea mining for polymetallic nodules in abyssal plains will impact the benthic ecosystem, but it is largely unclear whether this ecosystem will be able to recover from mining disturbance and if so, at what time scale and to which extent. In 1989, during the &quot;DISturbance and reCOLonization&quot; (DISCOL) experiment, a total of 22&#8201;% of the surface within a 10.8&#8201;km2 large circular area of the nodule-rich seafloor in the Peru Basin (SE Pacific) was ploughed to bury nodules and mix the surface sediment. This area was revisited 0.1, 0.5, 3, 7, and 26 years after the disturbance to assess macrofauna, megafauna and fish density and diversity. We used this unique abyssal faunal time series to develop carbon-based food web models for disturbed (sediment inside the plough tracks) and undisturbed (sediment inside the experimental area, but outside the plough tracks) sites. We developed a linear inverse model (LIM) to resolve carbon flows between 7 different feeding types within macrofauna, megafauna and fish. The total faunal biomass was always higher at the undisturbed sites compared to the disturbed sites and 26 years post-disturbance the biomass at the disturbed sites was only 54&#8201;% of the biomass at undisturbed sites. Fish and sub-surface deposit feeders experienced a particularly large temporal variability in biomass and model-reconstructed respiration rates making it difficult to determine disturbance impacts. Deposit feeders were least affected by the disturbance, with respiration, external predation and excretion levels only reduced by 2.6&#8201;% in the sediments disturbed 26-years ago compared with undisturbed areas. In contrast, the respiration rate of filter and suspension feeders was still 79.5&#8201;% lower after 26 years when comparing the same sites. The &quot;total system throughput&quot; (T..), i.e. the total sum of carbon flows in the food web, was always higher at undisturbed sites compared to the corresponding disturbed sites and was lowest at disturbed sites directly after the disturbance (8.63&#8201;&#215;&#8201;10&#8722;3&#8201;&#177;&#8201;1.58&#8201;&#215;&#8201;10&#8722;5&#8201;mmol&#8201;C&#8201;m&#8722;2&#8201;d&#8722;1). Therefore, 26 years after the DISCOL disturbance, the throughput discrepancy between the undisturbed and the disturbed sediment was still 56&#8201;%. From these results we conclude that C cycling within the fauna compartments of an abyssal plain ecosystem remains reduced 26 years after physical disturbance, and that a longer period of time is required for the system to recover from such a simulated small scale deep-sea mining experimental disturbance.

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Mineralization at Oceanic Transform Faults and Fracture Zones

Gartman¹,

Hein²

2019

Transform Plate Boundaries and Fracture Zones

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Habitat characterization of the Vema Fracture Zone and Puerto Rico Trench

Cited by 17 publications

References 49 publications

Discovery of widely available abyssal rock patches reveals overlooked habitat type and prompts rethinking deep-sea biodiversity

Discovery of widely available abyssal rock patches reveals overlooked habitat type and prompts rethinking deep-sea biodiversity

Faunal carbon flows in the abyssal plain food web of the Peru Basin have not recovered during 26 years from an experimental sediment disturbance

Mineralization at Oceanic Transform Faults and Fracture Zones

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