Evidence for benthic body size miniaturization in the deep sea

Kaariainen, Janne; Bett, Brian J.

doi:10.1017/s0025315406014366

Cited by 23 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Transitions from larger to smaller body size dominance during lower food supplies also confirm hypotheses from spatial studies (12,17,18) that food availability influences interspecific bodysize distributions of deep-sea macrofauna. Overall the monthly average biomass (per capita TA B ) correlated positively with POC flux with a lag of ϳ7 months (r s ϭ 0.60, n ϭ 21, P ϭ 0.004) (Fig.…”

supporting

confidence: 74%

“…For example, a metaanalysis of samples collected from 1961 to 1985 in the western North Atlantic found that the principal pattern of macrofauna abundance was related to depth-corrected POC flux as determined from the more modern sea-viewing wide fieldof-view sensor (SeaWiFS) ocean color data (13). Analysis of patterns in body size distributions have also found a decrease in average body size with increasing depth and/or decreasing food availability (12,17,18).Time-series research of abyssal communities has been more limited. Previous time-series studies have comprehensively described deep-sea community collapses that occurred in synchrony to glaciations (19) and centennial-scale climate variations since the time of the last glacial maximum (20).…”

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confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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Connections between climate, food limitation, and carbon cycling in abyssal sediment communities

Ruhl

Ellena

Smith

2008

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

129

114

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Diverse faunal groups inhabit deep-sea sediments over much of Earth's surface, but our understanding of how interannual-scale climate variation alters sediment community components and biogeochemical processes remains limited. The vast majority of deep-sea communities depend on a particulate organic carbon food supply that sinks from photosynthetically active surface waters. Variations in food supply depend, in part, on surface climate conditions. Proposed ocean iron fertilization efforts are also intended to alter surface production and carbon export from surface waters. Understanding the ecology of the abyssal sediment community and constituent metazoan macrofauna is important because they influence carbon and nutrient cycle processes at the seafloor through remineralization, bioturbation, and burial of the sunken material. Results from a 10-year study in the abyssal NE Pacific found that climate-driven variations in food availability were linked to total metazoan macrofauna abundance, phyla composition, rank-abundance distributions, and remineralization over seasonal and interannual scales. The long-term analysis suggests that broad biogeographic patterns in deep-sea macrofauna community structure can change over contemporary timescales with changes in surface ocean conditions and provides significant evidence that sediment community parameters can be estimated from atmospheric and upper-ocean conditions. These apparent links between climate, the upper ocean, and deep-sea biogeochemistry need to be considered in determining the long-term carbon storage capacity of the ocean.biogeochemistry ͉ community structure ͉ deep sea ͉ ecology ͉ macrofauna A ppreciating how climate can influence deep-sea communities and biogeochemical cycles is essential in evaluating how they may vary in the future. Current evidence suggests that climate change is resulting in significant alterations of oceanographic conditions worldwide including increased sea-surface temperatures, stronger stratification, and increased acidity (1, 2). The changing climate will likely also impact net primary production (1, 3-7) and the export of particulate organic carbon (POC) to the deep sea. Life on the seafloor depends upon this sinking POC and has a fundamental influence on the amount of carbon and nutrients that are remineralized or buried there. Ocean iron fertilization plans also project increases in surface production and POC export from surface waters, but fertilization impacts are poorly constrained (8, 9), especially for the deep-sea sediment community.Detailed studies of macrofauna, a major component of the sediment community, have been conducted at various locations and depths worldwide and have generally found higher abundances below areas with greater surface production (10-16). Abyssal food supply varies with distance from shore, depth, and surface productivity at basin scales. Previous studies that covered adequate spatial areas, however, understandably lacked long-term temporal perspective. Most spatial studies have effectively compa...

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confidence: 74%

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confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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Connections between climate, food limitation, and carbon cycling in abyssal sediment communities

Ruhl

Ellena

Smith

2008

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

129

114

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“…Meiofauna are conventionally defined to include animals that pass through a 1000-μm mesh sieve and are retained on a 63-μm mesh sieve (Giere, 1993). However, because deep-sea organisms are generally smaller than their shallow-water counterparts (Kaariainen & Bett, 2006), a 32-μm mesh sieve was used as the lower limit in this study. Meiofauna were extracted by density gradient centrifugation with Ludox as a flotation medium (de Jonge & Bouwman, 1977).…”

Section: Laboratory Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Temporal changes (1989–1999) in deep-sea metazoan meiofaunal assemblages on the Porcupine Abyssal Plain, NE Atlantic

Kalogeropoulou

Bett

Gooday

et al. 2010

Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography

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Trends among major metazoan meiofaunal taxa were investigated based on 56 deployments of a multicorer at 10 time points over a period of eleven years at a site on the Porcupine Abyssal Plain Sustained Observatory (PAP-SO: 48°50´N 16°30´W, 4850 m depth). This area is characterised by a strong seasonality in the deposition of organic matter to the seafloor and by the massive increase in the density of holothurian species since 1996, the so-called 'Amperima event'. Total meiofaunal densities ranged from 346 to 1074 ind. 10 cm -2 and showed a significant increase with time when time was represented by cruises, years and the 'Amperima period ' (1996-99) vs. the pre-Amperima period . This pattern was driven mainly by the nematodes, which were the dominant taxon (~90% of total abundance). The third most abundant group, the polychaetes, also increased significantly in abundance over the time series, while the ostracods showed a significant decrease. Most other taxa, including the second-ranked group, the copepods (harpacticoids and nauplii), did not exhibit significant temporal changes in abundance. Ordination of taxon composition showed a shift from the pre-Amperima to the Amperima periods, a trend supported by the significant correlation between the x-ordinate and time. The majority (52-75%) of meiofaunal animals inhabited the top 2 cm of the 5 cm sediment cores analysed. There were significant increases in the proportion of total meiofauna, nematodes and copepods (but not polychaetes) inhabiting the 0-1 cm layer over time (represented by cruises) and between the pre-Amperima and Amperima periods in the case of copepods and polychaetes. During the intensively sampled period , there were indications of seasonal changes in the vertical distribution patterns of total meiofauna and nematodes within the sediment.

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“…This method is commonly employed to assess body size abundance relationships when sampled individuals are too numerous and the species are hard to recognize, as occur in benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages (Dinmore & Jennings, 2004;Drgas, Radziejewska, & Warzocha 1998;Kaariainen & Bett, 2006;Mancinelli, Pinna, & Basset, 2008;Mouillot et al, 2006).…”

Section: Environmental Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in body size spectra of benthic caridean shrimps (Decapoda: Caridea) and snails (Gastropoda) as response to seasonal variability

Badano

Labra

Martínez‐Pérez

et al. 2016

RBT

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Abstract:Ecologists have been largely interested in the description and understanding of the power scaling relationships between body size and abundance of organisms. Many studies have focused on estimating the exponents of these functions across taxonomic groups and spatial scales, to draw inferences about the processes underlying this pattern. The exponents of these functions usually approximate -3/4 at geographical scales, but they deviate from this value when smaller spatial extensions are considered. This has led to propose that body size-abundance relationships at small spatial scales may reflect the impact of environmental changes. This study tests this hypothesis by examining body size spectra of benthic shrimps (Decapoda: Caridea) and snails (Gastropoda) in the Tamiahua lagoon, a brackish body water located in the Eastern coast of Mexico. We measured water quality parameters (dissolved oxygen, salinity, pH, water temperature, sediment organic matter and chemical oxygen demand) and sampled benthic macrofauna during three different climatic conditions of the year (cold, dry and rainy season). Given the small size of most individuals in the benthic macrofaunal samples, we used body volume, instead of weight, to estimate their body size. Body size-abundance relationships of both taxonomic groups were described by tabulating data from each season into base-2 logarithmic body size bins. In both taxonomic groups, observed frequencies per body size class in each season were standardized to yield densities (i.e., individuals/m 3 ). Nonlinear regression analyses were separately performed for each taxonomic group at each season to assess whether body size spectra followed power scaling functions. Additionally, for each taxonomic group, multiple regression analyses were used to determine whether these relationships varied among seasons. Our results indicated that, while body size-abundance relationships in both taxonomic groups followed power functions, the parameters defining the shape of these relationships varied among seasons. These variations in the parameters of the body size-abundance relationships seems to be related to changes in the abundance of individuals within the different body size classes, which seems to follow the seasonal changes that occur in the environmental conditions of the lagoon. Thus, we propose that these body size-abundance relationships are influenced by the frequency and intensity of environmental changes affecting this ecosystem. Rev. Biol. Trop. 64 (1): 33-44. Epub 2016 March 01.

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Evidence for benthic body size miniaturization in the deep sea

Cited by 23 publications

References 43 publications

Connections between climate, food limitation, and carbon cycling in abyssal sediment communities

Connections between climate, food limitation, and carbon cycling in abyssal sediment communities

Temporal changes (1989–1999) in deep-sea metazoan meiofaunal assemblages on the Porcupine Abyssal Plain, NE Atlantic

Changes in body size spectra of benthic caridean shrimps (Decapoda: Caridea) and snails (Gastropoda) as response to seasonal variability

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