Survey
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
Download Title
Document related concepts
Transcript
Biodiversity and long-term change in chemosynthetic communities Supervisors Professor Paul Tyler (NOCS, UK), Dr Anna Colaço (University of the Azores, Portugal), Dr Daniel Desbruyères (IFREMER, France), Dr Michael Klages (AWI, Germany), Dr Adrian Glover (Natural History Museum, London). Rationale Recent research has shown that deep-sea ecosystems change with time. This is particularly evident at hydrothermal vents where the relative abundances of species changes depending on the dynamics of the hydrothermal system. It is unclear whether similar temporal variation occurs at cold (methane) seeps. To understand how hydrothermal vent and cold seep communities change with time, this study aims to characterise changes in communities with time at the Lucky Strike hydrothermal vent field on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and the Haakon Mosby Mud Volcano (HMMV) in the northern Norwegian Sea. A ten-year time series on biological and hydrothermal processes is available at the Lucky Strike vent field. Lucky Strike is one of the largest known active vent fields "in the modern ocean”. It is located at 37.3ºN 32.3ºW. The student will compile, format, process and analyse the time series data. The HMMV is about 1 km in diameter and rises up to 10 m above the seafloor, at depths of 1255-1265 m. The mud volcano has highly gas-saturated sediments. There are strong geothermal gradients. There are large populations of pogonophora. Research of the HMMV started in 1999. A number of cruises have been carried out to the area building up a short time series to 2005. Further cruises are planned in 2006 and 2007. The aim is to understand long-term changes in different chemosynthetic environments, so that biodiversity studies can be placed in a temporal context. The study may entail work on individual species use using molecular techniques. Methodology The PhD studentship will be registered at the University of the Azores and will be based at the Department of Oceanography and Fisheries, Horta, The Azores, Portugal. The student will spend time at IFREMER in Brest and at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton. A first stage will be to use the IFREMER BIOCEAN database to collate data on key species at the Lucky Strike vent field, their relative abundance and changes in community composition with time. In addition, the student will analyse video transects undertaken during 7 submersible expeditions using the ROV “Victor”. In addition, where necessary, the student will document and process newly discovered species from the Lucky Strike vent field, including the use of molecular techniques to characterise species. The fauna at the Haakon Mosby Mud Volcano are being worked on by a wide variety of taxonomic experts. The student will be responsible for collating data from the AWI database, in particular on meio- and macro-faunal species, looking for any potential changes in species composition with time. Where necessary molecular techniques will be used to characterise key species. Comparisons with other chemosynthetic environments being studied in the Census of Marine Life ChEss (Chemosynthetic Ecosystem Study) and the EU Integrated Project HERMES (Hotspot Ecosystem Research on the Margins of European Seas) will be made. Training The student will gain a good grounding in the ecology of deep-sea chemosynthetic ecosystems. It is intended that the student will participate in future expeditions to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and the Haakon Mosby Mud Volcano. Experience, therefore, will be gained on sampling difficult environments in the deep sea, including the use of submersibles and ROVs. The work will be presented in oral and poster presentations at international conferences, including an analysis of preliminary results at the 11th International Deep-Sea Biology Symposium at Southampton in July 2006. A personal development plan will be devised to meet the needs of the student. The student will participate in a wide variety of workshops on marine biodiversity and ecosystem functioning as part of the EU MarBEF Network and will have the opportunity of discussing their research with many of the leading European researchers in marine biodiversity at the annual MarBEF General Assemblies. Wider implications Very little is know about how chemosynthetic environments change with time. It is likely to be very different in hydrothermal vents and cold seeps. This will be the first study to use time series information from a variety of European chemosynthetic sites and will contribute to ecosystem management plans being devised for biodiversity hotspots on the European continental margin. The study will work closely with other time series studies in MarBEF, including shallow water, and will contribute to modelling studies being carried out in HERMES. Background reading Colaço, A., et al. (2002). Nutritional relations of deep-sea hydrothermal fields at the MidAtlantic Ridge: a stable isotope approach. Deep-Sea Research I 41, 395-412. Desbruyères, D. et al., (2001) Deep-sea hydrothermal vent communities on the MidAtlantic Ridge near the Azores Plateau. Deep-Sea Research I 48, 1325-1346 Gage, J.D. & Tyler, P.A. (1991). Deep-sea biology: a natural history of organisms at the deep-sea floor. Cambridge University Press. Hjelstuen, B.O et al., (1999). Regional setting of Hakon Mosby Mud Volcano, SW Barents Sea margin. Geo-Marine Letters 19, 22-28. Tyler, P.A. (2003). Ecosystems of the World 28: Ecosystems of the Deep Oceans. Elsevier, Amsterdam, 569pp. More info http://www.horta.uac.pt/port/ http://www.marbef.org/ http://www.noc.soton.ac.uk/chess/ http://www.noc.soton.ac.uk/soes/ http://www.nhm.ac.uk/ http://www.awi-bremerhaven.de/ http://www.ifremer.fr/francais/ http://www.noc.soton.ac.uk/GDD/DEEPSEAS/index.html Contact Professor Paul Tyler [email protected]
