How Deep-Sea Wood Falls Sustain Chemosynthetic Life
| Type | Article | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | 2013-01 | ||||||||
| Language | English | ||||||||
| Author(s) | Bienhold Christina1, 2, Ristova Petra Pop1, 2, Wenzhoefer Frank1, 2, Dittmar Thorsten3, Boetius Antje1, 2 | ||||||||
| Affiliation(s) | 1 : Alfred Wegener Inst Polar & Marine Res, HGF MPG Grp Deep Sea Ecol & Technol, Bremerhaven, Germany. 2 : Max Planck Inst Marine Microbiol, Bremen, Germany. 3 : Carl von Ossietzky Univ Oldenburg, Max Planck Res Grp Marine Geochem, Inst Chem & Biol Marine Environm, D-26111 Oldenburg, Germany. |
||||||||
| Source | Plos One (1932-6203) (Public Library Science), 2013-01 , Vol. 8 , N. 1 , P. e53590 | ||||||||
| DOI | 10.1371/journal.pone.0053590 | ||||||||
| WOS© Times Cited | 108 | ||||||||
| Abstract | Large organic food falls to the deep sea - such as whale carcasses and wood logs - are known to serve as stepping stones for the dispersal of highly adapted chemosynthetic organisms inhabiting hot vents and cold seeps. Here we investigated the biogeochemical and microbiological processes leading to the development of sulfidic niches by deploying wood colonization experiments at a depth of 1690 m in the Eastern Mediterranean for one year. Wood-boring bivalves of the genus Xylophaga played a key role in the degradation of the wood logs, facilitating the development of anoxic zones and anaerobic microbial processes such as sulfate reduction. Fauna and bacteria associated with the wood included types reported from other deep-sea habitats including chemosynthetic ecosystems, confirming the potential role of large organic food falls as biodiversity hot spots and stepping stones for vent and seep communities. Specific bacterial communities developed on and around the wood falls within one year and were distinct from freshly submerged wood and background sediments. These included sulfate-reducing and cellulolytic bacterial taxa, which are likely to play an important role in the utilization of wood by chemosynthetic life and other deep-sea animals. | ||||||||
| Full Text |
|