Ashallow-waterwhale-fall experiment in the north Atlantic
The study of hydrothermal vent and seep fauna is associated with great costs due to the deep and distant locations. Whale-falls, which are thought to have habitat conditions which overlap seep ecosystems, may be used as a model system to explore questions such as the evolution of dispersal strategie...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Text |
| Language: | unknown |
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Station Biologique de Roscoff (SBR)
2006
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| Online Access: | https://dx.doi.org/10.21411/cbm.a.85dc609a http://application.sb-roscoff.fr/cbm/doi/10.21411/CBM.A.85DC609A |
| Summary: | The study of hydrothermal vent and seep fauna is associated with great costs due to the deep and distant locations. Whale-falls, which are thought to have habitat conditions which overlap seep ecosystems, may be used as a model system to explore questions such as the evolution of dispersal strategies and interactions between hosts and their symbiont microbes. Our discovery of whale-fall fauna at a whale carcass sunk at shelf depth in a Swedish fjord contrasts the apparent lack of specialized organisms from shallow water seep environments. Representatives of a whale-fall fauna found at the Swedish study site include bacterial mat feeding dorvilleid annelids and the whale-bone eating pogonophoran worm Osedax mucofloris Glover et al., 2005. We are maintaining whale-fall fauna alive in aquaria, and initial results from these studies suggest that O. mucofloris has a continuous reproduction life-history strategy. |
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