Linking regional variation of epibiotic bacterial diversity and trophic ecology in a new species of Kiwaidae (Decapoda, Anomura) from East Scotia Ridge (Antarctica) hydrothermal vents

• Published in: MicrobiologyOpen
• Main Authors: Zwirglmaier, Katrin, Reid, William D. K., Heywood, Jane, Sweeting, Christopher J., Wigham, Benjamin D., Polunin, Nicholas V. C., Hawkes, Jeff A., Connelly, Douglas P., Pearce, David, Linse, Katrin
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: Southern Ocean; Calvin; East Scotia Ridge; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/372822/; https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/372822/1/mbo3227.pdf

We analyzed the diversity of bacterial epibionts and trophic ecology of a new species of Kiwa yeti crab discovered at two hydrothermal vent fields (E2 and E9) on the East Scotia Ridge (ESR) in the Southern Ocean using a combination of 454 pyrosequencing, Sanger sequencing, and stable isotope analysis. The Kiwa epibiont communities were dominated by Epsilon- and Gammaproteobacteria. About 454 sequencing of the epibionts on 15 individual Kiwa specimen revealed large regional differences between the two hydrothermal vent fields: at E2, the bacterial community on the Kiwa ventral setae was dominated (up to 75%) by Gammaproteobacteria, whereas at E9 Epsilonproteobacteria dominated (up to 98%). Carbon stable isotope analysis of both Kiwa and the bacterial epibionts also showed distinct differences between E2 and E9 in mean and variability. Both stable isotope and sequence data suggest a dominance of different carbon fixation pathways of the epibiont communities at the two vent fields. At E2, epibionts were putatively fixing carbon via the Calvin-Benson-Bassham and reverse tricarboxylic acid cycle, while at E9 the reverse tricarboxylic acid cycle dominated. Co-varying epibiont diversity and isotope values at E2 and E9 also present further support for the hypothesis that epibionts serve as a food source for Kiwa.