Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-31T15:57:31.207Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Distribution of Pogonophora in Canyons of the Bay of Biscay: Factors Controlling Abundance and Depth Range

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

A. J. Southward  and
P. R. Dando
A. J. Southward
Affiliation:
The Laboratory, Marine Biological Association, Citadel Hill, Plymouth PL1 2PB
P. R. Dando
Affiliation:
The Laboratory, Marine Biological Association, Citadel Hill, Plymouth PL1 2PB
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The Pogonophora are tube-worms of predominantly deep sea distribution. They lack a functioning alimentary canal in the adult stage and are then dependent for nutrition on internal symbiotic chemosynthetic bacteria that occupy tissue derived from the larval endoderm (Southward, 1982, 1987, 1988; Southward & Southward, 1987; Southward et al. 1981). Of the two main subgroups, the small perviate Pogonophora are widely distributed in reducing sediments in the oceans, while the large vestimentiferan or obturate Pogonophora are restricted to hydrothermal vents or cold seeps. The small Pogonophora are often most abundant on steep slopes and in the Bay of Biscay Siboglinum atlanticum (Southward & Southward, 1958) can be a dominant element of the infauna of the sediments on the sides of canyons. This animal, like other small Pogonophora, lies buried in the sediment, in contrast to the vestimentifera which are attached to hard substrates. Until now there has been no fully quantitative information on the distribution of S. atlanticum and associated pogonophores of the Bay of Biscay. Dredges or trawls have been used for most previous sampling of pogonophores along the continental slope (Southward, 1979, 1985). Even the Plymouth-pattern deep-sea anchor dredge (Southward & Southward, 1963), which is designed to dig into the sediment immediately it is towed on the bottom, may drag for some distance through soft sediments before digging in, and then samples the upper few centimetres over a wider area than its mouth opening. During the last season of operation of R.R.S. ‘Frederick Russell’, before this vessel was disposed of by N.E.R.C., opportunity was taken to make a combined quantitative biological and chemical survey, using box-corers. The samples from the corers were large enough to allow the sample to be used for assessment of the population density of the pogonophores and analysis of sediment chemistry. Some inferences can now be drawn about the factors controlling pogonophore abundance.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 68 , Issue 4 , November 1988 , pp. 627 - 638
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1988

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Cline, J. D., 1969. Spectrophotometric determination of hydrogen sulphide in natural waters. Limnology and Oceanography, 14, 141–152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dal, Pont G., Hogan, M. & Newell, B., 1974. Laboratory techniques in marine chemistry. II. Determination of ammonia in sea water and the preservation of samples for nitrate analysis. Report. Division of Fisheries and Oceanography, CSIRO, Australia, no. 55, 8pp.Google Scholar
Dando, P. R., Southward, A. J., Southward, E. C., Terwilliger, N. B. & Terwilliger, R. C., 1985. Sulphur-oxidising bacteria and haemoglobin in gills of the bivalve mollusc Myrtea spinifera. Marine Ecology - Progress Series, 23, 85–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dando, P. R., Southward, A. J., Southward, E. C. & Barrett, R. L., 1986. Possible energy sources for chemoautotrophic prokaryotes symbiotic with invertebrates from a Norwegian fjord. Ophelia, 26, 135–150.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fliermans, C. B. & Brock, T. D., 1973. Assay of elemental sulphur in soil. Soil Science, 115, 120–122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jonasson, A. & Olausson, E., 1966. New devices for sediment sampling. Marine Geology, 4, 365–372.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kenyon, N. H., Belderson, R. H. & Stride, A. H., 1978. Channels, canyons and slump folds on the continental slope between south-west Ireland and Spain. Oceanologica acta, 1, 369–380.Google Scholar
Le Danois, E., 1948. Les Profondeurs de la Mer. Paris: Payot.Google Scholar
Reineck, H.-E., 1963. Der Kastengreifer. Natur und Museum, Frankfurt, 93, 102–108.Google Scholar
Schmaljohann, R., 1987. Endosymbiosen zwischen methylotrophen Bakterien und marinen Invertebraten. Forum Mikrobiologie, 10, 166–171.Google Scholar
Schmaljohann, R. & Flügel, H., 1987. Methane oxidising bacteria in Pogonophora. Sarsia, 72, 91–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Southward, A. J. & Southward, E. C., 1963. Notes on the biology of some Pogonophora. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 43, 57–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Southward, A. J. & Southward, E. C., 1987. Pogonophora. In Animal Energetics, vol. 2 (ed. Pandian, T. J. and Vernberg, F. J.), pp. 201–228. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Southward, A. J., Southward, E. C., Dando, P. R., Barrett, R. L. & Ling, R., 1986. Chemoautotrophic function of bacterial symbionts in small Pogonophora. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 66, 415—437.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Southward, A. J., Southward, E. C., Dando, P. R., Rau, G. H., Felbeck, H. & Flügel, H., 1981. Bacterial symbionts and low 13C/12C ratios in tissues of Pogonophora indicate unusual nutrition and metabolism. Nature, London, 293, 616–620.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Southward, E. C., 1977. A new species of Hyalinoecia (Polychaeta: Eunicidae) from deep water in the Bay of Biscay. In Essays on Polychaetous Annelids, in Memory of Dr Olga Hartman (ed. Reish, D. J. and Fauchald, K.), pp. 173–187. Los Angeles: University of Southern California, Allan Hancock Foundation. [Special Publication.]Google Scholar
Southward, E. C., 1979. Horizontal and vertical distribution of Pogonophora in the Atlantic Ocean. Sarsia, 64, 51–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Southward, E. C., 1982. Bacterial symbionts in Pogonophora. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 62, 889–906.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Southward, E. C., 1985. Pogonophora. In Les Peuplements Profonds du Golfe du Gascogne: Campagnes BIOGAS (ed. Laubier, L. and Monniot, C.), pp. 369–373. Brest: IFREMER.Google Scholar
Southward, E. C., 1986. Gill symbionts in thyasirids and other bivalve molluscs. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 66, 889–914.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Southward, E. C., 1987. Contribution of symbiotic chemoautotrophs to the nutrition of benthic invertebrates. In Microbes in the Sea (ed. Sleigh, M. A.), pp. 83–118. Chichester: Ellis Horwood.Google Scholar
Southward, E. C., 1988. Development of the gut and segmentation of newly-settled stages of Ridgeia (Vestimentifera): implications for relationship between Vestimentifera and Pogonophora. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 68, 465–487.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Southward, E. C. & Southward, A. J., 1958. On some Pogonophora from the north-east Atlantic, including two new species. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 37, 627–632.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Southward, E. C. & Southward, A. J., 1966. A preliminary account of the general and enzyme histochemistry of Siboglinum atlanticum and other Pogonophora. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 46, 579–616.Google Scholar
Terwilliger, R. C., Terwilliger, N. B., Hughes, G. M., Southward, A. J. & Southward, E. C., 1987. Studies on the haemoglobins of the small Pogonophora. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 67, 219–234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhabina, N. N. & Volkov, I. I., 1978. A method of determination of various sulfur compounds in sea sediments and rocks. In Environmental Biogeochemistry and Geomicrobiology, vol. 3. Methods, Metals and Assessment (ed. Krumbein, W. E.), pp. 735–746. Ann Arbor: Ann Arbor Science Publishers.Google Scholar