Reproduction, Dispersal, and Recruitment of Hydrothermal Vent Crabs: A Tractable System

卡里9618007大约20年前，研究人员发现了独特的生物群落，居住在沿东太平洋中洋扩张中心的深海热液喷口。这些物种如何在这些零星的、短暂的栖息地中分散和维持种群的问题，一直是喷口生态学中最有趣和最悬而未决的问题之一。这项研究将是脊口幼虫项目(LARVE)的一部分，该项目是正在进行的山脊学科间全球实验(RIDGE)计划的一个组成部分。幼虫成功的核心是了解热液喷口物种维持种群的方式。早期工作的结果表明，喷口物种产生的远洋幼虫负责在新的喷口地点定居并维持现有地点的种群。然而，现有的证据几乎完全是间接的。喷口区域(在时间和空间上)的杂乱无章使问题更加复杂，需要创新的解决方案，使用最易驯化的物种作为扩散和补充的模型。研究的重点将是喷口蟹，Bythograea thermydron。这种蟹的生活史特征使十足类甲壳类成为许多浅水扩散和补充研究的首选分类群。这项研究的中心假设认为，Bythograea thermydron通过利用潮下底流和幼虫发育良好的游泳能力的底层幼虫在喷口地点扩散。了解蟹的生活史以及从喷口扩散螃蟹的生物学和物理限制，对于建立可信的模型，说明这些群落是如何沿着大洋中脊建立和维持的至关重要。

Cary 9618007 Almost 20 years ago researchers discovered unique communities of organisms inhabiting deep-sea hydrothermal vents located along the Eastern Pacific mid-ocean spreading centers. The question of how these species disperse and maintain their populations in these patchy, ephemeral habitats has remained one of the most interesting and unanswered problems in vent ecology. This study will be part of the Larvae-at-Ridge-Vents Project (LARVE), which is a component of the ongoing Ridge Inter-Disciplinary Global Experiments (RIDGE) program. Central to the success of LARVE is understanding the way in which hydrothermal-vent species maintain populations. Results of earlier work suggest that vent species produce pelagic larvae that are responsible for colonization of new vent sites and for maintaining populations at established sites. However, available evidence is almost entirely circumstantial. The patchiness of vent fields (in time and space) compounds the problem and demands innovative solutions that use the most tractable species as models for dispersal and recruitment. The focus of the research will be the vent crab, Bythograea thermydron. This crab shares the life-history characteristics that have made decapod crustaceans the taxon-ofchoice for a great many shallow-water studies of dispersal and recruitment. The central hypothesis of the study maintains that Bythograea thermydron disperses among vent sites via demersal larvae that take advantage of both subtidal bottom currents and the well developed swimming ability of the larvae. Understanding the life histories and the biological and physical constraints on dispersal of crabs from vents sites is critical to establishing credible models of how these communities are established and maintained along mid-ocean ridges.