Comparative study of vent and seep macrofaunal communities in the Guaymas Basin

Type Article
Date 2015
Language English
Author(s) Portail Marie1, Olu KarineORCID1, Escobar-Briones E.2, Caprais Jean-Claude1, Menot LenaickORCID1, Waeles Mathieu3, Cruaud Perrine4, Sarradin Pierre-MarieORCID1, Godfroy AnneORCID4, Sarrazin JozeeORCID1
Affiliation(s) 1 : Inst Carnot Ifremer EDROME, Ctr Bretagne, REM EEP, Lab Environm Profond, F-29280 Plouzane, France.
2 : Univ Nacl Autonoma Mexico, Inst Ciencias Mar & Limnol, Mexico City 04510, DF, Mexico.
3 : Univ Bretagne Occidentale, IUEM, Lemar UMR CNRS 6539, F-29280 Plouzane, France.
4 : UBO, Lab Microbiol Environm Extremes, CNRS, IFREMER,UMR6197, F-29290 Plouzane, France.
Source Biogeosciences (1726-4170) (Copernicus Gesellschaft Mbh), 2015 , Vol. 12 , N. 18 , P. 5455-5479
DOI 10.5194/bg-12-5455-2015
WOS© Times Cited 33
Abstract Understanding the ecological processes and connectivity of chemosynthetic deep-sea ecosystems requires comparative studies. In the Guaymas Basin (Gulf of California, Mexico), the presence of seeps and vents in the absence of a biogeographic barrier, and comparable sedimentary settings and depths offers a unique opportunity to assess the role of ecosystem-specific environmental conditions on macrofaunal communities. Six seep and four vent assemblages were studied, three of which were characterised by common major foundation taxa: vesicomyid bivalves, siboglinid tubeworms and microbial mats. Macrofaunal community structure at the family level showed that density, diversity and composition patterns were primarily shaped by seep- and vent-common abiotic factors including methane and hydrogen sulfide concentrations, whereas vent environmental specificities (higher temperature, higher metal concentrations and lower pH) were not significant. The type of substratum and the heterogeneity provided by foundation species were identified as additional structuring factors and their roles were found to vary according to fluid regimes. At the family level, seep and vent similarity reached at least 58 %. All vent families were found at seeps and each seep-specific family displayed low relative abundances (< 5 %). Moreover, 85 % of the identified species among dominant families were shared between seep and vent ecosystems. This study provides further support to the hypothesis of continuity among deep-sea seep and vent ecosystems.
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Portail Marie, Olu Karine, Escobar-Briones E., Caprais Jean-Claude, Menot Lenaick, Waeles Mathieu, Cruaud Perrine, Sarradin Pierre-Marie, Godfroy Anne, Sarrazin Jozee (2015). Comparative study of vent and seep macrofaunal communities in the Guaymas Basin. Biogeosciences, 12(18), 5455-5479. Publisher's official version : https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-5455-2015 , Open Access version : https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00280/39076/