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Fossil evidence for serpentinization fluids fueling chemosynthetic assemblages.

ABSTRACT: Among the deep-sea hydrothermal vent sites discovered in the past 30 years, Lost City on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR) is remarkable both for its alkaline fluids derived from mantle rock serpentinization and the spectacular seafloor carbonate chimneys precipitated from these fluids. Despite high concentrations of reduced chemicals in the fluids, this unique example of a serpentinite-hosted hydrothermal system currently lacks chemosynthetic assemblages dominated by large animals typical of high-temperature vent sites. Here we report abundant specimens of chemosymbiotic mussels, associated with gastropods and chemosymbiotic clams, in approximately 100 kyr old Lost City-like carbonates from the MAR close to the Rainbow site (36 °N). Our finding shows that serpentinization-related fluids, unaffected by high-temperature hydrothermal circulation, can occur on-axis and are able to sustain high-biomass communities. The widespread occurrence of seafloor ultramafic rocks linked to likely long-range dispersion of vent species therefore offers considerably more ecospace for chemosynthetic fauna in the oceans than previously supposed.

SUBMITTER: Lartaud F

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3093485 | biostudies-literature | 2011 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Fossil evidence for serpentinization fluids fueling chemosynthetic assemblages.

Lartaud Franck F Little Crispin T S CT de Rafelis Marc M Bayon Germain G Dyment Jerome J Ildefonse Benoit B Gressier Vincent V Fouquet Yves Y Gaill Françoise F Le Bris Nadine N

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20110425 19

Among the deep-sea hydrothermal vent sites discovered in the past 30 years, Lost City on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR) is remarkable both for its alkaline fluids derived from mantle rock serpentinization and the spectacular seafloor carbonate chimneys precipitated from these fluids. Despite high concentrations of reduced chemicals in the fluids, this unique example of a serpentinite-hosted hydrothermal system currently lacks chemosynthetic assemblages dominated by large animals typical of high-te ...[more]

PMID: 21518892

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Project description:Background and aimsSpecificity in biotic interactions is mediated' by functional traits inducing shifts in the community species composition. Functional traits are often evolutionarily conserved, resulting in closely related species tending to interact with similar species. This tendency may initially shape the phylogenetic composition of coexisting guilds, but other intraguild ecological processes may either blur or promote the mirroring of the phylogenetic compositions between guilds. The roles of intra- and interguild interactions in shaping the phylogenetic community composition are largely unknown, beyond the mere selectivity in the interguild interactions. Plant facilitation is a phylogenetically structured species-specific process involving interactions not only between the same guild of plants, but also between plants and other guilds such as arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF). In this study it is hypothesized that reciprocal plant-AMF interactions will leave an interdependent phylogenetic signal in the community composition of both plants and AMF.MethodsA correlation was used to test for a relationship between the phylogenetic composition of plant and AMF assemblages in a patchy xeric shrubland environment shaped by plant facilitation. In addition, a null model was used to test whether this correlation can be solely explained by selectivity in plant-AMF interactions.Key resultsA significant correlation was observed between the phylogenetic composition of plant and AMF assemblages. Plant phylogenetic composition in a patch was related to the predominance of plant species with high nursery quality that can influence the community assembly. AMF phylogenetic composition was related to the AMF phylogenetic diversity in each patch.ConclusionsThis study shows that shifts in the phylogenetic composition of plants and AMF assemblages do not occur independently. It is suggested that besides selectivity in plant-AMF interactions, inter-related succession dynamics of plants and AMF within patches could be an ecological mechanism driving community assembly. Future lines of research might explore whether interlinked above- and below-ground dynamics could be occurring across multiple guilds simultaneously.

Dataset Information

Fossil evidence for serpentinization fluids fueling chemosynthetic assemblages.

Publications

Fossil evidence for serpentinization fluids fueling chemosynthetic assemblages.

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