POM in macro-/meiofaunal food webs associated with three flow regimes at deep-sea hydrothermal vents on Axial Volcano,Juan de Fuca Ridge |
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Authors: | Helene Limén Christian Levesque S Kim Juniper |
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Institution: | (1) Centre GEOTOP-UQAM-McGill, Université du Québec à Montréal, CP 8888, succursale Centre-Ville, Montréal, QC, H3C 3P8, Canada;(2) The Swedish Parliament, Research Service, 100 12 Stockholm, Sweden;(3) Present address: John Abbott College, 21,275 Lakeshore Road, Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Québec, H9X 3L9, Canada;(4) Present address: School of Earth and Ocean Sciences and Department of Biology, University of Victoria, P.O. Box 3020, Victoria, BC, V8W 3N5, Canada |
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Abstract: | Deep-sea hydrothermal vent ecosystems host both symbiotic and non-symbiotic invertebrates. The non-symbiotic vent fauna is
generally assumed to rely on free-living chemoautotrophic bacteria as their main food source but other sources such as detritus
have recently been suggested to be a part of the invertebrate diets. Little is known about how food availability influences
the distribution of vent organisms on a small scale. In addition, the feeding ecology and role of small, often numerically
dominant invertebrates, the meiofauna is poorly understood at vents. In this study, we used stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic
analysis to investigate the role of particulate detritus in the diets of macro- and meiobenthic invertebrates within three
vent assemblages at Axial Volcano, Juan de Fuca Ridge, and Northeast Pacific. Particulate organic matter of a detrital origin
became more important in the diet of invertebrates in assemblages typically associated with low-hydrothermal flow intensities.
Meiobenthic species occupied several different feeding guilds and trophic levels in the assemblages investigated. We conclude
that small-scale spatial variability in food sources is an important feature of vent food webs and that spatial patterns observed
here and elsewhere are shaped by variations in hydrothermal discharge. |
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