Unravelling the environmental drivers of deep-sea nematode biodiversity and its relation with carbon mineralisation along a longitudinal primary productivity gradient

Pape, Ellen; Bezerra, Tânia Campinas; Jones, Daniel O. B.; Vanreusel, Ann

doi:10.5194/bg-10-3127-2013

Cited by 31 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 82 publications

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“…The species belonging to the monhysterid family were assigned to the C-P 2 class ("general opportunists") as advised by Bongers et al (1995) and later restated by Pape et al (2013); no nematodes belonged to C-P class 1 ("enrichment opportunists").…”

Section: Life History (C-p Score)mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Structure and function of nematode communities across the Indian western continental margin and its oxygen minimum zone

Singh

Ingole

2016

Biogeosciences

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Abstract. We studied patterns of nematode distribution along the western Indian continental margin to determine the influence of habitat heterogeneity and low oxygen levels on the community's taxonomic and functional structure. A single transect, perpendicular to the coast at 14 • N latitude was sampled from 34 to 2546 m depth for biological and environmental variables during August 2007. The oxygen minimum zone extended from 102 to 1001 m. Nematodes (described and undescribed) were identified to species and classified according to biological and functional traits. A total of 110 nematode species belonging to 24 families were found along the transect. Three depth zones were identified: the shelf (depth range: 34-102 m; highest nematode mean density: 176.6 ± 37 ind 10 cm −2 ), the slope (525-1524 m; 124.3 ± 16 ind 10 cm −2 ), and the basin (2001-2546 m; 62.9 ± 2 ind 10 cm −2 ). Across the entire study area, the dominant species were Terschellingia longicaudata, Desmodora sp. 1, Sphaerolaimus gracilis, and Theristus ensifer; their maximum density was at shelf stations. Nematode communities in different zones differed in species composition. Chromadorita sp. 2 (2.78 %) and Sphaerolaimus gracilis (2.21 %) were dominant on the shelf, whereas Terschellingia longicaudata (4.73 %) and Desmodora sp. 1 (4.42 %) were dominant on the slope, but in the basin, Halalaimus sp. 1(1.11 %) and Acantholaimus elegans (1.11 %) were dominant. The information in a particular functional group was not a simple reflection of the information in species abundance. Ecological information captured by adult length, adult shape, and life-history strategy was less sitespecific and thus differed notably from information contained in other taxonomic groups. The functional composition of nematodes was strongly linked to the organiccarbon and dissolved-oxygen concentration. Seven species were found exclusively in the oxygen minimum zone: Pselionema sp. 1, Choanolaimus sp. 2, Halichoanolaimus sp. 1, Cobbia dentata, Daptonema sp. 1, Trissonchulus sp. 1, and Minolaimus sp. 1. Correlation with a number of environmental variables indicated that food quantity (measured as the organic-carbon content and chlorophyll content) and oxygen level were the major factors that influenced nematode community structure and function.

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Section: Life History (C-p Score)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The relative abundance (Bongers et al, 1991(Bongers et al, , 1995Pape et al, 2013); 1: species exhibiting trait; 0: species not exhibiting trait.…”

Section: Functional Traitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Structure and function of nematode communities across the Indian western continental margin and its oxygen minimum zone

Singh

Ingole

2016

Biogeosciences

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“…Since functional diversity provides a direct mechanistic link between diversity and ecosystem functioning, a growing amount of research is being devoted to assessing the effect of functional-rather than taxon-diversity on ecosystem functioning (Petchey et al, 2004;Reiss et al, 2009). Numerous independent variables of functional traits, including feeding guilds, reproduction strategy, bioturbation mode and/or body shape (e.g., Ieno et al, 2006;Carvalho et al, 2013;Pape et al, 2013;Piot et al, 2014;Quéiros et al, 2015), and biological traits analysis (e.g., Bremner et al, 2003;Bolam and Eggleton, 2014) have been applied to express functional diversity. Nevertheless, there is currently no universally accepted methodology for selecting the most appropriate traits for a given study (Bolam, 2013), and quite often the selection is heavily affected by the limited biological information that is available for benthic invertebrate taxa (Bremner, 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Even though the amount of marine systems investigation has risen steeply over the past few years (Worm et al, 2006;Mora et al, 2011), deep-sea BEF studies (>200 m depth) are quite recent (Danovaro et al, 2008a;Leduc et al, 2013;Narayanaswamy et al, 2013;Pape et al, 2013;Zeppilli et al, 2016). A positive and exponential BEF relationship, reported for deep-sea benthic communities (e.g., Danovaro et al, 2008a;Narayanaswamy et al, 2013), has been explained by the prevalence of mutualistic rather than competitive interactions between organisms (Loreau, 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Most deep-sea BEF investigations have used the meiofauna, particularly nematodes, as model taxa (Danovaro et al, 2008a;Leduc et al, 2013;Pape et al, 2013;Pusceddu et al, 2014b;Yasuhara et al, 2016;Zeppilli et al, 2016), whereas comparatively few studies have examined how microbial and viral components (Danovaro et al, 2008b), or of larger epifauna (Amaro et al, 2010), influence ecosystem functioning. In this study, BEF relationships were explored by focusing on the structural and functional diversity of the macrobenthic fauna.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Exploring the Relationship between Macrofaunal Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning in the Deep Sea

et al. 2017

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The global scale of the biodiversity crisis has stimulated research into the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (BEF). Even though the deep sea is the largest biome on Earth, BEF studies in deep-sea benthic ecosystems are scant. Moreover, the small number of recent studies, which mostly focus on meiobenthic nematodes, report conflicting results that range from a very clear positive relationship to none at all. In this BEF study, the deep-sea macrofauna were used as a model to investigate the structural and functional diversity of macrofauna assemblages at three depths (1,200, 1,900, and 3,000 m) in seven open-slope systems from the North-Eastern Atlantic Ocean to the Central-Eastern Mediterranean Sea. The presence and nature of BEF relationships were studied considering two spatial scales, the large and the basin scale, in different environmental settings. Total benthic biomass and macrofaunal predator biomass were used as proxies to assess ecosystem functioning. Ecosystem efficiency was expressed as macrofaunal biomass to biopolymeric carbon content ratio, macrofaunal biomass to prokaryotic biomass ratio, macrofaunal biomass to meiofaunal biomass ratio, and meiofaunal biomass to prokaryotic biomass ratio. On both large and basin spatial scales, some significant relationships between macrofaunal diversity and ecosystem functioning and efficiency were reported. When significant, the nature of BEF relations was positive and exponential or linear supporting the general idea that a higher diversity can enhance ecosystem functioning. Other BEF relationships were explained by the effect of environmental variables. More data from different deep-sea systems are needed, to better elucidate the consequences of biodiversity loss on the ocean floor.

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Investigating the environmental drivers of deep‐seafloor biodiversity: A case study of peracarid crustacean assemblages in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean

Ashford

Kenny

Froján

et al. 2019

Ecology and Evolution

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The deep‐sea benthos covers over 90% of seafloor area and hosts a great diversity of species which contribute toward essential ecosystem services. Evidence suggests that deep‐seafloor assemblages are structured predominantly by their physical environment, yet knowledge of assemblage/environment relationships is limited. Here, we utilized a very large dataset of Northwest Atlantic Ocean continental slope peracarid crustacean assemblages as a case study to investigate the environmental drivers of deep‐seafloor macrofaunal biodiversity. We investigated biodiversity from a phylogenetic, functional, and taxonomic perspective, and found that a wide variety of environmental drivers, including food availability, physical disturbance (bottom trawling), current speed, sediment characteristics, topographic heterogeneity, and temperature (in order of relative importance), significantly influenced peracarid biodiversity. We also found deep‐water peracarid assemblages to vary seasonally and interannually. Contrary to prevailing theory on the drivers of deep‐seafloor diversity, we found high topographic heterogeneity (at the hundreds to thousands of meter scale) to negatively influence assemblage diversity, while broadscale sediment characteristics (i.e., percent sand content) were found to influence assemblages more than sediment particle‐size diversity. However, our results support other paradigms of deep‐seafloor biodiversity, including that assemblages may vary inter‐ and intra‐annually, and how assemblages respond to changes in current speed. We found that bottom trawling negatively affects the evenness and diversity of deep‐sea soft‐sediment peracarid assemblages, but that predicted changes in ocean temperature as a result of climate change may not strongly influence continental slope biodiversity over human timescales, although it may alter deep‐sea community biomass. Finally, we emphasize the value of analyzing multiple metrics of biodiversity and call for researchers to consider an expanded definition of biodiversity in future investigations of deep‐ocean life.

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Unravelling the environmental drivers of deep-sea nematode biodiversity and its relation with carbon mineralisation along a longitudinal primary productivity gradient

Cited by 31 publications

References 82 publications

Structure and function of nematode communities across the Indian western continental margin and its oxygen minimum zone

Structure and function of nematode communities across the Indian western continental margin and its oxygen minimum zone

Exploring the Relationship between Macrofaunal Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning in the Deep Sea

Investigating the environmental drivers of deep‐seafloor biodiversity: A case study of peracarid crustacean assemblages in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean

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