Activity and positioning of eurythermal hydrothermal vent sulphide worms in a variable thermal environment
Activity and positioning of eurythermal hydrothermal vent sulphide worms in a variable thermal environment
Here we investigate behavioral responses to fine-scale spatial and temporal temperature gradients in a heat tolerant hydrothermal vent worm (Paralvinella sulfincola). While this species has been a model organism for understanding physiological adaptations to extreme environments, lacking are corroborative in situ experiments and characterization of temperature-related behaviors representing the lower thermal tolerance range of this species. To address this knowledge gap, we first quantified the upper thermal limit for this species using a rapid heating protocol executed remotely on the seafloor. Second, we used a combination of in situ observations and shipboard experiments to test for temperature-dependent patterns in activity and behavior. We confirm that P. sulfincola is remarkably eurythermal and demonstrates a thermal niche breadth exceeding 45 °C. We further show that the activity and positioning of worms relate to temperatures within its lower preferred range (i.e., between 4 and 20 °C). Worms tended to remain closer to their tube openings and held their branchial crown in a consistent location when fluids were relatively warm. By contrast, when fluids were cooler, both the distance worms were observed from their tubes and positioning of their branchial crown were more variable. A Bayesian hidden Markov model classified each worm at each time interval as being in a high or low activity state according to the magnitude of change in their orientation and how far they moved between successive time lapse images. We found that the transition between active and inactive states at any time period is related to fluid temperature. Our observations indicate that the behavior of the worms is temperature-dependent, which may in turn reflect temperature-related variables such as the delivery of food particles, dissolved oxygen concentration, or relative environmental variability. Our findings demonstrate that this species can respond behaviorally to very fine-scale environmental variability in a manner not simply predicted by models of increasing activity with temperature.
Behavior, Eurythermal, Hydrothermal vent, Paralvinella, Sulphide worm, Thermal variability
149-155
Bates, Amanda E.
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Bird, Tomas J.
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Robert, Katleen
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Onthank, Kirt L.
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Quinn, Gerry P.
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Juniper, S. Kim
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Lee, Raymond W.
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October 2013
Bates, Amanda E.
a96e267d-6d22-4232-b7ed-ce4e448a2a34
Bird, Tomas J.
763cc96b-c03e-422f-95cd-dc65c7491448
Robert, Katleen
49e4bfa2-0999-41ec-b50d-65c0f8896583
Onthank, Kirt L.
938cc2f8-feb4-4537-8ba2-4c00fe696fc9
Quinn, Gerry P.
20a41d2d-d435-43fa-a3f0-28276f805730
Juniper, S. Kim
2b48fa82-0129-4285-ae76-11f4bc63aaf8
Lee, Raymond W.
eb0de84e-c1f5-4ae3-92a8-a5f01fbae80f
Bates, Amanda E., Bird, Tomas J., Robert, Katleen, Onthank, Kirt L., Quinn, Gerry P., Juniper, S. Kim and Lee, Raymond W.
(2013)
Activity and positioning of eurythermal hydrothermal vent sulphide worms in a variable thermal environment.
Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 448, .
(doi:10.1016/j.jembe.2013.06.015).
Abstract
Here we investigate behavioral responses to fine-scale spatial and temporal temperature gradients in a heat tolerant hydrothermal vent worm (Paralvinella sulfincola). While this species has been a model organism for understanding physiological adaptations to extreme environments, lacking are corroborative in situ experiments and characterization of temperature-related behaviors representing the lower thermal tolerance range of this species. To address this knowledge gap, we first quantified the upper thermal limit for this species using a rapid heating protocol executed remotely on the seafloor. Second, we used a combination of in situ observations and shipboard experiments to test for temperature-dependent patterns in activity and behavior. We confirm that P. sulfincola is remarkably eurythermal and demonstrates a thermal niche breadth exceeding 45 °C. We further show that the activity and positioning of worms relate to temperatures within its lower preferred range (i.e., between 4 and 20 °C). Worms tended to remain closer to their tube openings and held their branchial crown in a consistent location when fluids were relatively warm. By contrast, when fluids were cooler, both the distance worms were observed from their tubes and positioning of their branchial crown were more variable. A Bayesian hidden Markov model classified each worm at each time interval as being in a high or low activity state according to the magnitude of change in their orientation and how far they moved between successive time lapse images. We found that the transition between active and inactive states at any time period is related to fluid temperature. Our observations indicate that the behavior of the worms is temperature-dependent, which may in turn reflect temperature-related variables such as the delivery of food particles, dissolved oxygen concentration, or relative environmental variability. Our findings demonstrate that this species can respond behaviorally to very fine-scale environmental variability in a manner not simply predicted by models of increasing activity with temperature.
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Published date: October 2013
Keywords:
Behavior, Eurythermal, Hydrothermal vent, Paralvinella, Sulphide worm, Thermal variability
Organisations:
Ocean and Earth Science
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 361222
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/361222
ISSN: 0022-0981
PURE UUID: 4708c4f5-022a-4ca5-8354-188a3a862a9d
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Date deposited: 15 Jan 2014 13:47
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 15:47
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Contributors
Author:
Amanda E. Bates
Author:
Tomas J. Bird
Author:
Katleen Robert
Author:
Kirt L. Onthank
Author:
Gerry P. Quinn
Author:
S. Kim Juniper
Author:
Raymond W. Lee
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