The discovery of a natural whale fall in the Antarctic deep sea
The discovery of a natural whale fall in the Antarctic deep sea
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DOI：
10.1016/j.dsr2.2013.01.028
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发表时间：
2013-08-01
影响因子：
3
通讯作者：
Copley, Jonathan T.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Amon, Diva J.;Glover, Adrian G.;Copley, Jonathan T.
深海海底的大型鲸目动物身体，也就是人们所知的鲸鱼瀑布，为多面手食腐物种、与热液喷口和冷泉相关的化学合成动物以及Osedax蠕虫等非凡的骨骼专业物种提供了资源。在这里，我们报告了一个偶然发现的晚期自然鲸鱼在南三明治弧处1444米深的地方坠落的发现。这一发现是在鲸目动物丰富的南大洋遇到的第一次自然鲸鱼坠落。骨骼位于海底火山口内，非常接近活跃的热液喷口(<；250米)。我们使用DNA条形码的方法识别出这具骨架是南极小须鲸(Balaenoptera Bonerica)的骨架。身体处于高级腐烂状态，暴露的骨骼被各种动物占据，其中包括9个未描述的物种。这些骨骼动物群包括一种未被描述的Leptodrilus limest物种，这种物种也存在于附近的热液喷口，这表明鲸鱼下落的栖息地被用作化学合成生态系统之间的垫脚石。利用遥控潜水器(ROV)摄像，我们量化了鲸鱼骨骼上动物的组成和丰度，并检验了鲸鱼骨骼中不同浓度的脂类可能影响嗜硫鲸类微分布的假说。我们的数据支持这样一种假设，即更多富含脂肪的骨骼支持更多的嗜硫细菌垫，这也与捕食帽贝(Pyropelta sp.)的丰富有关。Osedax sp.的丰度。然而，在骨骼上，与细菌垫覆盖率呈负相关，因此在骨骼上的最大丰度预测具有最低的脂肪含量。(C)2013爱思唯尔有限公司。保留所有权利。
Large cetacean carcasses at the deep-sea floor, known as 'whale falls', provide a resource for generalist-scavenging species, chemosynthetic fauna related to those from hydrothermal vents and cold seeps, and remarkable bone-specialist species such as Osedax worms. Here we report the serendipitous discovery of a late-stage natural whale fall at a depth of 1444 m in the South Sandwich Arc. This discovery represents the first natural whale fall to be encountered in the Southern Ocean, where cetaceans are abundant. The skeleton was situated within a seafloor caldera, in close proximity (< 250 m) to active hydrothermal vents. We used a DNA barcoding approach to identify the skeleton as that of an Antarctic minke whale (Balaenoptera bonaerensis). The carcass was in an advanced state of decomposition, and its exposed bones were occupied by a diverse assemblage of fauna including nine undescribed species. These bone fauna included an undescribed species of Lepetodrilus limpet that was also present at the nearby hydrothermal vents, suggesting the use of whale-fall habitats as stepping stones between chemosynthetic ecosystems. Using Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) videography, we have quantified the composition and abundance of fauna on the whale bones, and tested a hypothesis that varying concentrations of lipids in the bones of whales may influence the microdistribution of sulfophilic whale-fall fauna. Our data supported the hypothesis that more lipid-rich bones support a greater abundance of sulfophilic bacterial mats, which are also correlated with the abundance of grazing limpets (Pyropelta sp.). The abundance of Osedax sp. on bones however, showed a negative correlation with the bacterial-mat percentage cover, and hence greatest abundance on bones predicted to have lowest lipid content. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.