Dataset Information

Distribution and sexual dimorphism of the crab Xenograpsus testudinatus from the hydrothermal vent field of Kueishan Island, northeastern Taiwan.

ABSTRACT: The sulphur-rich and acidic vent waters of a shallow hydrothermal vent field next to Kueishan Island in Taiwan provide a specific and generally toxic environment. Among only a few aquatic organisms able to survive there, the grapsoid crab Xenograpsus testudinatus is the dominant species with a high population density in the vent area. Here we study the gender-specific distribution, morphological traits, and relationship of wet weight vs. carapace width of this crab. A total of 1120 individuals including 831 male and 289 female (included 15 ovigerous) were examined during August and September in 2011 and May and September in 2012. Except in August 2011, there are no significant differences in the distribution of X. testudinatus in the hydrothermal vent area from the vent spout during most months. Among crabs, the weight of male (6.87 ± 2.90 g) was significantly heavier than that of females (4.17 ± 1.25 g) (p < 0.001, Student's t-test). As for the wet weight of crabs, significant differences were noted in both the length of chela and the width of carapace between males and females. Sexual dimorphism of X. testudinatus is evident in three morphological traits. Pearson's correlation showed a significant and positive correlation (p < 0.001) of wet weight, width of carapace and length of chela of the two sexes. Ovigerous crabs (shortest carapace width: 1.93 cm) were present in the specimen collected from August 2011 and May 2012. The ovigerous crabs were not found in the samples collected from September in both years 2011 and 2012, indicating that reproduction may have ceased during the period of sampling. The present results suggested that the reproductive period of X. testudinatus was before September. The distribution pattern and sexual dimorphism of X. testudinatus provided a better understanding of the idiobiology of this dominant metazoan in the hydrothermal vent area.

SUBMITTER: Tseng LC

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7098652 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Distribution and sexual dimorphism of the crab Xenograpsus testudinatus from the hydrothermal vent field of Kueishan Island, northeastern Taiwan.

Tseng Li-Chun LC Yu Pin-Yi PY Hwang Jiang-Shiou JS

PloS one 20200326 3

The sulphur-rich and acidic vent waters of a shallow hydrothermal vent field next to Kueishan Island in Taiwan provide a specific and generally toxic environment. Among only a few aquatic organisms able to survive there, the grapsoid crab Xenograpsus testudinatus is the dominant species with a high population density in the vent area. Here we study the gender-specific distribution, morphological traits, and relationship of wet weight vs. carapace width of this crab. A total of 1120 individuals i ...[more]

PMID: 32214356

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Project description:This paper reports the diversity of fungi associated with substrates collected at a shallow hydrothermal vent field at Kueishan Island, Taiwan, using both culture-based and metabarcoding methods. Culture of fungi from yellow sediment (with visible sulfur granules), black sediment (no visible sulfur granules), the vent crab Xenograpsus testudinatus, seawater and, animal egg samples resulted in a total of 94 isolates. Species identification based on the internal transcribed spacer regions of the rDNA revealed that the yellow sediment samples had the highest species richness with 25 species, followed by the black sediment (23) and the crab (13). The Ascomycota was dominant over the Basidiomycota; the dominant orders were Agaricales, Capnodiales, Eurotiales, Hypocreales, Pleosporales, Polyporales and Xylariales. Hortaea werneckii was the only common fungus isolated from the crab, seawater, yellow and black sediment samples. The metabarcoding analysis amplifying a small fragment of the rDNA (from 18S to 5.8S) recovered 7-27 species from the black sediment and 12-27 species from the yellow sediment samples and all species belonged to the Ascomycota and the Basidiomycota. In the yellow sediments, the dominant order was Pleosporales and this order was also dominant in the black sediment together with Sporidiobolales. Based on the results from both methods, 54 and 49 species were found in the black and yellow sediments, respectively. Overall, a higher proportion of Ascomycota (~70%) over Basidiomycota was recovered in the yellow sediment and the two phyla were equally abundant in the black sediment. The top five dominant fungal orders in descending order based on species richness were Pleosporales>Eurotiales>Polyporales>Hypocreales>Capnodiales in the black sediment samples, and Polyporales>Pleosporales>Eurotiales>Capnodiales>Hypocreales in the yellow sediment samples. This study is the first to observe a high diversity of fungi associated with various substrates at a marine shallow water hydrothermal vent ecosystem. While some fungi found in this study were terrestrial species and their airborne spores might have been deposited into the marine sediment, several pathogenic fungi of animals, including Acremonium spp., Aspergillus spp., Fusarium spp., Malassezia spp., Hortaea werneckii, Parengyodontium album, and Westerdykella dispersa, were recovered suggesting that these fungi may be able to cause diseases of marine animals.

Project description:Hydrothermal vent (HTV) systems are important habitats for understanding the biological processes of extremophiles on Earth and their relative contributions to material and energy cycles in the ocean. Current understanding on hydrothermal systems have been primarily focused on deep-sea HTVs, and little is known about the functions and metabolisms of microorganisms in shallow-water HTVs (SW-HTVs), which are distinguished from deep-sea HTVs by a depth limit of 200 m. In this study, we analyzed metagenomes of sulfur-rich sediment samples collected from a SW-HTV of Kueishan Island, located in a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean. Comparing with a previously published report of pelagic samples from the nearby sampling site, microbial communities in the SW-HTV sediments enriching with genes of both aerobic and anaerobic respiration inferred variable environments in the tested sediments. Abundant genes of energy metabolism encoding sulfur oxidation, H2 oxidation, and carbon fixation were detected from the sediment samples. Sixty-eight metagenome-assembled-genomes (MAGs) were reconstructed to further understand the metabolism and potential interactions between different microbial taxa in the SW-HTVs sediment. MAGs with the highest abundant were chemolithotrophic sulfur-oxidization bacteria, including Sulfurovum represented Campylobacteria involved sox multienzyme, sulfide oxidation genes and rTCA cycle, and Gammaproteobacteria involved dsr gene and CBB cycle. In addition, Desulfobacterota with the potential to participate in sulfur-disproportionating processes also had higher abundance than the sample's overall mean value. The interaction of these bacterial groups allows the microbial communities to efficiently metabolize a large variety of sulfur compounds. In addition, the potential to use simple organic carbon, such as acetate, was found in chemolithotrophic Campylobacterial MAGs. Collectively, our results revealed the complexity of environmental conditions of the vent sediment and highlight the interactive relationships of the dominant microbial populations in driving sulfur cycles in the SW-HTV sediments off Kueishan Island.

Dataset Information

Distribution and sexual dimorphism of the crab Xenograpsus testudinatus from the hydrothermal vent field of Kueishan Island, northeastern Taiwan.

Publications

Distribution and sexual dimorphism of the crab Xenograpsus testudinatus from the hydrothermal vent field of Kueishan Island, northeastern Taiwan.

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