Community Structure and Dynamics in a Newly Discovered Deep Sea Reducing Habitat: Lipid-Rich Whale Bones

由产碳微生物推动的丰富动物群落已知来自深海海底的各种减少栖息地，包括喷口，渗漏和富含有机物的沉积物；这些生境一般与板块和/或高海岸生产力地区之间的边界有关。在最近一次乘坐“阿尔文”号潜水器在卡塔利纳盆地的潜水中，科学家们发现了一个由一种新的还原碳化合物来源——一条20米长的鲸鱼骨架——提供燃料的群落。初步证据表明，鲸鱼遗骸可能提供了持久和丰富的减少栖息地，其动物群落类似于那些渗漏，喷口和富含有机物的泥浆。然而，如果不更好地了解以下情况，就无法严格评估鲸鱼骨架还原性栖息地的重要性：(1)还原性化合物的来源和通量；(2)群落组成（包括喷口-渗漏亲和关系）；(3)与这些富碳微生物系统相关的群落动态（如持续时间）。本研究将提供一个描述性和实验性的方案，使用卡塔利娜盆地鲸鱼下降作为一个案例研究，以解决这三个主题。

Rich animal communities fueled by carbon producing microorganisms are known from a variety of reducing habitats at the deep-sea floor including vents, seeps, and organic-rich sediments; these habitats generally are linked to the boundaries between plates and/or areas of high coastal productivity. During a recent dive with the submersible, ALVIN, in the Catalina Basin, scientists discovered a community fueled by a novel source of reduced carbon compounds --- the skeleton of a 20-m long whale. Preliminary evidence suggests that whale remains may provide persistent and abundant reducing habitats with faunal communities similar to those of seeps, vents and organic-rich muds. However, the significance of whale-skeleton reducing habitats cannot be rigorously evaluated without much better knowledge of at least: (1) the source and flux rates of reducing compounds, (2) community composition (including vent-seep affinities), and (3) community dynamics (e.g., persistence times) associated with these carbon rich microbial systems. This research will provide a descriptive and experimental program, using the Catalina Basin whale-fall as a case study, to address these three topics.