Natural isotope study of trophic enrichment of marine benthic communities by petroleum seepage

The isotopic ratios of sulfur and carbon in the tissues of infanal organisms collected from a natural petroleum seep in the Santa Barbara Channel, California, USA were examined to see if petroleum is utilized by the benthic community. Sulfur isotope data were consistent with a pathway of petroleum energy from sulfate reducers → H₂S → Beggiatoa sp. → nematodes and other infauna. The carbon of infaunal organisms was isotopically lighter at the seep than at a comparison station; the mean δ¹³C for 12 species was-1.32‰ towards the petroleum δ¹³C value. The shifts were largest in two species of deep-feeding maldanid polychaetes. The tissues of one of the species, Praxillella affinis pacifica, were also analyzed for ¹⁴C content and δ³⁴S, and the biomass produced by the populations over 26 mo was estimated. The results of these analyses allowed us to estimate that for the seep population: (1) there was 15.6% more fossil carbon, (2) chemoautotrophic bacteria contributed 13.6% more carbon, and (3) 19% more carbon was produced by the population over 26 mo. In spite of the possible sources of error, these values are in reasonable agreement. In general, these data infer that, although petroleum utilization by the benthic food web proceeds both directly through heterotrophs and indirectly through chemoautotrophs, the two pathways are tightly coupled. A carbon budget for P. affinis pacifica was constructed with three assumed sources: chemoautotrophic biomass, petroleum carbon utilized heterotrophically, and nonexotic carbon utilized heterotrophically. Calculations based on this budget indicate that the food web is fueled to a greater extent by the isotopically lighter gases than by the liquid oil.