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: | https://hdl.handle.net/10037/26862 https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2022.910558 |
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ftunivtroemsoe:oai:munin.uit.no:10037/26862 2023-05-15T14:24:28+02:00 Chemosynthetic and photosynthetic trophic support from cold seeps in Arctic benthic communities Åström, Emmelie Bluhm, Bodil Rasmussen, Tine Lander 2022-08-17 https://hdl.handle.net/10037/26862 https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2022.910558 eng eng Frontiers Media Frontiers in Marine Science Åström EKL, Bluhm B, Rasmussen TLR. Chemosynthetic and photosynthetic trophic support from cold seeps in Arctic benthic communities. Frontiers in Marine Science. 2022;9 FRIDAID 2052923 doi:10.3389/fmars.2022.910558 2296-7745 https://hdl.handle.net/10037/26862 openAccess Copyright 2022 The Author(s) Journal article Tidsskriftartikkel Peer reviewed publishedVersion 2022 ftunivtroemsoe https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2022.910558 2022-09-21T23:00:39Z 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 isotopic ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Arctic Barents Sea Svalbard University of Tromsø: Munin Open Research Archive Arctic Svalbard Barents Sea Frontiers in Marine Science 9 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
University of Tromsø: Munin Open Research Archive |
op_collection_id |
ftunivtroemsoe |
language |
English |
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 isotopic ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Åström, Emmelie Bluhm, Bodil Rasmussen, Tine Lander |
spellingShingle |
Åström, Emmelie Bluhm, Bodil Rasmussen, Tine Lander Chemosynthetic and photosynthetic trophic support from cold seeps in Arctic benthic communities |
author_facet |
Åström, Emmelie Bluhm, Bodil Rasmussen, Tine Lander |
author_sort |
Åström, Emmelie |
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 |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/10037/26862 https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2022.910558 |
geographic |
Arctic Svalbard Barents Sea |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Svalbard Barents Sea |
genre |
Arctic Arctic Barents Sea Svalbard |
genre_facet |
Arctic Arctic Barents Sea Svalbard |
op_relation |
Frontiers in Marine Science Åström EKL, Bluhm B, Rasmussen TLR. Chemosynthetic and photosynthetic trophic support from cold seeps in Arctic benthic communities. Frontiers in Marine Science. 2022;9 FRIDAID 2052923 doi:10.3389/fmars.2022.910558 2296-7745 https://hdl.handle.net/10037/26862 |
op_rights |
openAccess Copyright 2022 The Author(s) |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2022.910558 |
container_title |
Frontiers in Marine Science |
container_volume |
9 |
_version_ |
1766296882329419776 |