Chemosynthetic and photosynthetic trophic support from cold seeps in Arctic benthic communities
Benthic communities below the photic zone are largely reliant on the export of surface-water primary production and the flux of partially degraded organic matter to the seabed, i.e. pelagic−benthic coupling. Over the past decades, however, the role of chemosynthetically produced carbon in food webs...
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2022.910558 https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2022.910558/full |
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crfrontiers:10.3389/fmars.2022.910558 2024-04-21T07:58:08+00:00 Chemosynthetic and photosynthetic trophic support from cold seeps in Arctic benthic communities Åström, Emmelie K. L. Bluhm, Bodil A. Rasmussen, Tine L. Norges Forskningsråd Norges Forskningsråd 2022 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2022.910558 https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2022.910558/full unknown Frontiers Media SA https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Frontiers in Marine Science volume 9 ISSN 2296-7745 Ocean Engineering Water Science and Technology Aquatic Science Global and Planetary Change Oceanography journal-article 2022 crfrontiers https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2022.910558 2024-03-26T08:32:47Z Benthic communities below the photic zone are largely reliant on the export of surface-water primary production and the flux of partially degraded organic matter to the seabed, i.e. pelagic−benthic coupling. Over the past decades, however, the role of chemosynthetically produced carbon in food webs has been recognized in various habitats. Cold seeps are now known to be widespread across circumpolar Arctic shelves where natural release of hydrocarbons occurs at the seabed. Here, we investigated to what extent chemosynthesis-based carbon (CBC) enters the food web in a high latitude shelf-system. Specifically, we estimated the contributions of chemosynthesis-based carbon to primarily benthic invertebrate taxa from seeps at both shallow and deeper shelves and comparative non-seep areas in the Svalbard-Barents Sea region using bulk stable isotope-analysis of carbon and nitrogen. Our results show low δ 13 C values (-51.3 to -32.7 ‰) in chemosymbiotic siboglinids and several species of benthic, higher-trophic level, invertebrates (mainly polychaetes and echinoderms; -35.0 to -26.1‰) collected at cold seeps, consistent with assimilation of chemosynthesis-based carbon into the Arctic benthic food web. Using a two-component mixing equation, we demonstrate that certain species could derive more than 50% of their carbon from chemosynthesis-based carbon. These findings show that autochthonous chemosynthetic energy sources can contribute to supporting distinct groups of ‘background’ benthic taxa at these Arctic seep-habitats beyond microbial associations and chemosymbiotic species. Furthermore, we found a higher degree of chemosynthesis-based carbon in benthos at the deeper Barents Sea shelf seeps (>330 m) compared to seeps at the Western Svalbard shelf (<150 m water-depth), and we suggest this result reflects the differences in depth range, surface production and pelagic-benthic coupling. We detected large intra-species variations in carbon signatures within and across geographical locations and, combined with ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Barents Sea Svalbard Frontiers (Publisher) Frontiers in Marine Science 9 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
Frontiers (Publisher) |
op_collection_id |
crfrontiers |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Ocean Engineering Water Science and Technology Aquatic Science Global and Planetary Change Oceanography |
spellingShingle |
Ocean Engineering Water Science and Technology Aquatic Science Global and Planetary Change Oceanography Åström, Emmelie K. L. Bluhm, Bodil A. Rasmussen, Tine L. Chemosynthetic and photosynthetic trophic support from cold seeps in Arctic benthic communities |
topic_facet |
Ocean Engineering Water Science and Technology Aquatic Science Global and Planetary Change Oceanography |
description |
Benthic communities below the photic zone are largely reliant on the export of surface-water primary production and the flux of partially degraded organic matter to the seabed, i.e. pelagic−benthic coupling. Over the past decades, however, the role of chemosynthetically produced carbon in food webs has been recognized in various habitats. Cold seeps are now known to be widespread across circumpolar Arctic shelves where natural release of hydrocarbons occurs at the seabed. Here, we investigated to what extent chemosynthesis-based carbon (CBC) enters the food web in a high latitude shelf-system. Specifically, we estimated the contributions of chemosynthesis-based carbon to primarily benthic invertebrate taxa from seeps at both shallow and deeper shelves and comparative non-seep areas in the Svalbard-Barents Sea region using bulk stable isotope-analysis of carbon and nitrogen. Our results show low δ 13 C values (-51.3 to -32.7 ‰) in chemosymbiotic siboglinids and several species of benthic, higher-trophic level, invertebrates (mainly polychaetes and echinoderms; -35.0 to -26.1‰) collected at cold seeps, consistent with assimilation of chemosynthesis-based carbon into the Arctic benthic food web. Using a two-component mixing equation, we demonstrate that certain species could derive more than 50% of their carbon from chemosynthesis-based carbon. These findings show that autochthonous chemosynthetic energy sources can contribute to supporting distinct groups of ‘background’ benthic taxa at these Arctic seep-habitats beyond microbial associations and chemosymbiotic species. Furthermore, we found a higher degree of chemosynthesis-based carbon in benthos at the deeper Barents Sea shelf seeps (>330 m) compared to seeps at the Western Svalbard shelf (<150 m water-depth), and we suggest this result reflects the differences in depth range, surface production and pelagic-benthic coupling. We detected large intra-species variations in carbon signatures within and across geographical locations and, combined with ... |
author2 |
Norges Forskningsråd Norges Forskningsråd |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Åström, Emmelie K. L. Bluhm, Bodil A. Rasmussen, Tine L. |
author_facet |
Åström, Emmelie K. L. Bluhm, Bodil A. Rasmussen, Tine L. |
author_sort |
Åström, Emmelie K. L. |
title |
Chemosynthetic and photosynthetic trophic support from cold seeps in Arctic benthic communities |
title_short |
Chemosynthetic and photosynthetic trophic support from cold seeps in Arctic benthic communities |
title_full |
Chemosynthetic and photosynthetic trophic support from cold seeps in Arctic benthic communities |
title_fullStr |
Chemosynthetic and photosynthetic trophic support from cold seeps in Arctic benthic communities |
title_full_unstemmed |
Chemosynthetic and photosynthetic trophic support from cold seeps in Arctic benthic communities |
title_sort |
chemosynthetic and photosynthetic trophic support from cold seeps in arctic benthic communities |
publisher |
Frontiers Media SA |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2022.910558 https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2022.910558/full |
genre |
Barents Sea Svalbard |
genre_facet |
Barents Sea Svalbard |
op_source |
Frontiers in Marine Science volume 9 ISSN 2296-7745 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2022.910558 |
container_title |
Frontiers in Marine Science |
container_volume |
9 |
_version_ |
1796939446030958592 |