A Coupled Modeling and Empirical Approach to the Study of the Life History and Physiological Ecology of Cold Seep Vestimentiferans and Communities

一种耦合的模拟和经验方法来研究冷泉vestimentiferans和社区的生活史和生理生态学。冷泉vestimentiferans和他们的共生体是初级生产者，在无毒的环境中为各种各样的冷泉特有和非特有异养物种提供复杂的栖息地结构。因此，它们可以说是大陆坡广泛渗漏区最重要的关键鱼种。最近的工作表明，一种（至少）的渗漏vestimentiferan是非常长寿的，可以支持其autotrophiclife风格与吸收溶解气体在其身体的掩埋部分。因此，在许多方面，冷泉vestimentiferans类似于长寿，生态系统结构，木本植物物种在陆地环境中，我们将开发模型，以解决资源的获取和分配，生活史，和社区生产力的冷泉vestimentiferans将指导和重点领域和实验室研究冷泉vestimentiferan社区。我们建议在墨西哥湾的路易斯安那斜坡上部540至1,000米深度范围内开展工作，并将包括暴露于一系列硫化物浓度的坚硬基底和沉积物上的社区。我们将使用实证研究和比较方法来开发，测试预测，并完善，动态能源预算模型，我们的现场工作将以这些数学模型为指导，并与非常有效和定量的收集方法相结合，这些方法将最大限度地利用从每次收集中收集到的信息，并为未来提供材料。研究，从而尽量减少我们对社区的短期和长期影响。将测量数千个个体的生长率，这些数据用于估计寿命，并计算每个vestimentiferan物种分配给生长的资源。我们将确定“根”（可用于从沉积物中开采硫化物的后延伸）是否是渗漏vestimentiferans的一般特征，以及它们是否是环境引起的。这些模型将用于探索不同情况下根部硫化物吸收对聚集体维持的相对重要性，以及vestimentiferan硫化物需求对硫化物产生的生物地球化学模型的影响。为了促进这一点，将测量环境中硫化物的浓度以及穿过根管和组织的扩散距离，并确定不同物种中血红蛋白的浓度和硫化物结合特性。生物量，大小的频率，分布和繁殖状态的vestimentiferans将被确定为完整的聚集和集合处理，使物种丰富度和生物量的所有associatedfauna在每个集合也可以确定。这将使我们能够制定生命史模型，将个体模型扩大到群体水平，并对相关动物群的过度生产及其使用进行建模。费舍尔在墨西哥湾渗漏社区方面拥有丰富的经验，并对这些地点进行了考察。谢伊是一位理论生态学家，在陆地和水生自养系统的生活史建模方面有丰富的经验。所提出的方法将大大增加我们对这些广泛而富有成效的深海群落及其对周围深海的影响的理解，并将提供一个建模框架，以关注相关和未来的调查。拟议的研究将对深海系统，特别是化能自养系统的生态学、生理学和生殖生物学产生基本的认识，还将为现有的生命史进化理论提供新的理论和检验。

A coupled modeling and empirical approach to the study of the life history andphysiological ecology of cold seep vestimentiferans and communities.Seep vestimentiferans and their symbionts are primary producers that provide complexhabitat structure in a non-toxic setting for a diverse assortment of seep-endemic and non-endemicheterotrophic species. As such, they are arguably the most important keystone speciesin widespread areas of seepage on the continental slope. Recent work has demonstrated that onespecies (at least) of seep vestimentiferan is extremely long-lived and can support its autotrophiclife style with the uptake of dissolved gasses across buried portions of its body. Thus, in manyways, the seep vestimentiferans are analogous to long-lived, ecosystem-structuring, woody plantspecies in a terrestrial environment.We will develop models to address resource acquisition and allocation, life histories, andcommunity productivity of cold seep vestimentiferans that will guide and focus field andlaboratory studies of cold seep vestimentiferan communities. We propose to work on the upperLouisiana Slope of the Gulf of Mexico at a depth range of 540 to 1,000m and will includecommunities on both hard substrata and sediment that are exposed to a range of sulfideconcentrations. We will use empirical studies and comparative methods to develop, test thepredictions of, and refine, Dynamic Energy Budget models, while at the same time addressingspecific hypotheses concerning vestimentiferan aggregation physiology and ecology.Our in situ work will be guided by these mathematical models and interfaced with veryefficient and quantitative collection methods that will maximize the information gleaned fromeach collection and provide material for future studies, thereby minimizing our short and long-termimpact on the communities. Growth rates of thousands of individuals will be measured andthese data used to estimate the longevity and to calculate the resources allocated to growth byeach vestimentiferan species. We will determine whether "roots" (posterior extensions that canbe used to mine sulfide from within sediments) are a general feature of seep vestimentiferans andwhether they are environmentally induced. The models will be used to explore the relativeimportance of root sulfide uptake to the sustenance of aggregations in different situations and theimplications of vestimentiferan sulfide demand on biogeochemical models of sulfide production.To facilitate this, environmental concentrations of sulfide and diffusion distances across roottubes and tissues will be measured, and concentrations and sulfide binding properties of thehemoglobins in the different species will be determined. The biomass, size frequency,distribution, and reproductive state of the vestimentiferans will be determined for intactaggregations and collections processed so that the species richness and biomass of all associatedfauna in each collection can also be determined. This will allow us to formulate life historymodels, to scale up the models of individuals to the levels of aggregations, and to model excessproduction and its use by associated fauna.Fisher has extensive experience with the Gulf of Mexico seep communities and has visitedthe sites. Shea is a theoretical ecologist with experience in life-history modeling of terrestrialand aquatic autotrophic systems. The proposed approach will significantly increase ourunderstanding of these widespread and productive deep-sea communities and their impact on thesurrounding deep sea, and will provide a modeling framework to focus related and futureinvestigations. The proposed studies will yield basic insights on the ecology, physiology andreproductive biology of deep-sea systems in general and chemoautotrophic systems in particular.They will also provide new theory, and tests for existing theory on the evolution of life historystrategies.