Community Development and Structure at Hydrothermal Vents: Life After Recruitment

热液喷口群落生态学的研究仅开始于对组成喷口生物群适应的生理生态学研究和物种占据模式的描述性分析。1994年12月，这些科学家在东太平洋上升的9Ý50' N发起了一个项目，以真正利用深潜器ALVIN的力量在这种深海环境中进行实验性干预，测试假设，以解释观察到的群落在空间（分区）和时间（演替）上的发展模式。在13个月的3次巡航中，在3个通风口的4个区域（管虫、双壳类、悬浮喂食器和外围）各部署了352个玄武岩定居块，实验测试了幼虫供应、生理适应和物种相互作用如何影响招募模式。这项更新奖励包括移植和恢复仍然留在海底的123个区块，在这些区块上，将发生足够的定植和生长，以便测试生物相互作用如何在早期定植阶段后改变分区和演替模式的发展。重点将特别关注(1)管虫之间的空间竞争（Riftia与Tevnia和Oasisia；以及贻贝与Riftia），(2)成年贻贝对幼虫定殖的抑制，(3)螃蟹和鱼类的捕食在调节竞争行会之间的相互作用（放牧腹足类与无底空间占占者），以及(4)历史上的动物占领在抑制群落变化方面的作用，因为排气通量的增加或减少。分析不同的生物相互作用如何沿着环境压力梯度影响群落发展具有重要的生态学意义，因为生理压力和环境生产力的空间梯度与岩石潮间带和几乎所有其他群落相反，我们目前对生物相互作用如何沿着环境压力变化的理解来源于此梯度。该项目还将研究幼虫的定居是否会因现有生物群的物种组成和覆盖而改变，这是RIDGE LARVE项目目标的特定主题，也是RIDGE的时间变异性组成部分的基础。

The community ecology of hydrothermal vents has only begun to be investigated by examinations of the physiological ecology of adaptations in component vent biota and descriptive analyses of species occupation patterns. In Dec 1994, these scientists initiated a project at 9Ý50' N on the East Pacific Rise to take true advantage of the power of the deep submersible ALVIN to conduct experimental interventions in this deep sea environment, testing hypotheses to explain observed patterns of community development in space (zonation) and time (succession). During 3 cruises over 13 mo, 352 basalt settlement blocks were deployed in each of 4 zones (Tubeworm, Bivalve, Suspension feeder, and Periphery) at 3 vents to test experimentally how recruitment patterns are influenced by larval supply, physiological adaptations, and species interactions. This renewal award involves transplantation and recovery of the 123 blocks still remaining on the seafloor, on which sufficient colonization and growth will have occurred to enable the test of how biological interactions modify development of zonation and succession patterns after the early colonization phase. The focus will be specifically on the role of ( I ) competition for space among tubeworms (Riftia vs. Tevnia and Oasisia; and mussels vs. Riftia), (2) suppression of larval colonization by adult mussels, (3) predation by crabs and fishes in mediating interactions between competing guilds (grazing gastropods vs. sessile space occupiers), and (4) historical faunal occupation in repressing community change as venting fluxes wax or wane. Analysis of how different biological interactions influence community development along the environmental stress gradient with distance from venting source has fundamental ecological significance because the spatial gradients in physiological stress and environmental productivity in vents are confounded in the opposite way from the rocky intertidal and virtually all other communities from which comes our present understanding of how biological interactions vary along environmental stress gradients. The project will also address whether larval settlement is altered by the species composition and cover of pre existing biota, a theme specific to objectives of the RIDGE LARVE (Larvae At Ridge VEnts) Project and fundamental to the Temporal Variability component of RIDGE.