Ecology of deep-sea hydrothermal vents
Ecology of deep-sea hydrothermal vents
Our ecological knowledge of deep-sea hydrothermal vent communities, particularly in the Atlantic, is limited in comparison to what is now known of the biochemistry, physiology and biogeography of vent species. Although vent communities have provided a new insight into how ecosystems can be supplied with energy, they have not yet made a significant contribution to our understanding of how communities can be shaped by a dynamic environment. Variations in the physical characteristics of the vent environment influence the distribution of fauna in space and time, but studies of faunal microdistribution have been largely restricted to Pacific vents whilst temporal studies have mainly concentrated on interannual scales. This work seeks to address the disparity in our ecological knowledge of Mid-Atlantic vent communities compared to their eastern Pacific counterparts, by describing the microdistribution and interannual variation of fauna at the Broken Spur vent field (29oN, Mid-Atlantic Ridge) and the results of a high-resolution timeseries of observations at the TAG hydrothermal mound (26oN, Mid-Atlantic Ridge) during drilling by the Ocean Drilling Program.
The Broken Spur vent field was discovered in 1993 and subsequent observations presented here refute the hypothesis that the community is recovering from a recent period of hydrothermal quiescence or other catastrophic disturbance. The availability of substratum exposed to the flow of hydrothermal effluent is proposed to control the microdistribution of the shrimp Rimicaris exoculata at Mid-Atlantic vents. Timeseries observations at TAG indicate a tidal variation in the microdistribution of shrimp on a minidiffuser chimney, while changes in the pattern of hydrothermal activity on the TAG mound over a longer timescale are rapidly matched by changes in the distribution of shrimp.
Although physiological processes such as respiration have now been described for many vent species, reproductive processes are less well known at hydrothermal vents. This thesis also examines the reproduction pattern structure of the Mid-Atlantic vent shrimp Rimicaris exoculata and spatial variation in reproductive development of terebellomorph polychaetes from the Juan de Fuca Ridge. The reproductive development of Rimicaris exoculata indicates asynchronous iteroparous reproduction, while the population structure may reflect discontinuous recruitment.
University of Southampton
Copley, Jonathan Timothy Peter
1998
Copley, Jonathan Timothy Peter
Copley, Jonathan Timothy Peter
(1998)
Ecology of deep-sea hydrothermal vents.
University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis.
Record type:
Thesis
(Doctoral)
Abstract
Our ecological knowledge of deep-sea hydrothermal vent communities, particularly in the Atlantic, is limited in comparison to what is now known of the biochemistry, physiology and biogeography of vent species. Although vent communities have provided a new insight into how ecosystems can be supplied with energy, they have not yet made a significant contribution to our understanding of how communities can be shaped by a dynamic environment. Variations in the physical characteristics of the vent environment influence the distribution of fauna in space and time, but studies of faunal microdistribution have been largely restricted to Pacific vents whilst temporal studies have mainly concentrated on interannual scales. This work seeks to address the disparity in our ecological knowledge of Mid-Atlantic vent communities compared to their eastern Pacific counterparts, by describing the microdistribution and interannual variation of fauna at the Broken Spur vent field (29oN, Mid-Atlantic Ridge) and the results of a high-resolution timeseries of observations at the TAG hydrothermal mound (26oN, Mid-Atlantic Ridge) during drilling by the Ocean Drilling Program.
The Broken Spur vent field was discovered in 1993 and subsequent observations presented here refute the hypothesis that the community is recovering from a recent period of hydrothermal quiescence or other catastrophic disturbance. The availability of substratum exposed to the flow of hydrothermal effluent is proposed to control the microdistribution of the shrimp Rimicaris exoculata at Mid-Atlantic vents. Timeseries observations at TAG indicate a tidal variation in the microdistribution of shrimp on a minidiffuser chimney, while changes in the pattern of hydrothermal activity on the TAG mound over a longer timescale are rapidly matched by changes in the distribution of shrimp.
Although physiological processes such as respiration have now been described for many vent species, reproductive processes are less well known at hydrothermal vents. This thesis also examines the reproduction pattern structure of the Mid-Atlantic vent shrimp Rimicaris exoculata and spatial variation in reproductive development of terebellomorph polychaetes from the Juan de Fuca Ridge. The reproductive development of Rimicaris exoculata indicates asynchronous iteroparous reproduction, while the population structure may reflect discontinuous recruitment.
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Published date: 1998
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Local EPrints ID: 463345
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/463345
PURE UUID: cc5f0183-0625-48b4-8764-585f2975846b
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Date deposited: 04 Jul 2022 20:50
Last modified: 04 Jul 2022 20:50
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Author:
Jonathan Timothy Peter Copley
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