Hydrothermal activity lowers trophic diversity in Antarctic hydrothermal sediments

Bell, James B.; Reid, William D. K.; Pearce, David A.; Glover, Adrian G.; Sweeting, Christopher J.; Newton, Jason; Woulds, Clare

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-14-5705-2017

Articles | Volume 14, issue 24

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-14-5705-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-14-5705-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 14, issue 24

Research article

|

20 Dec 2017

Research article |

| 20 Dec 2017

Hydrothermal activity lowers trophic diversity in Antarctic hydrothermal sediments

James B. Bell, William D. K. Reid, David A. Pearce, Adrian G. Glover, Christopher J. Sweeting, Jason Newton, and Clare Woulds

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-14-5705-2017-supplement

Data sets

Macrofaunal and sedimentary phospholipid fatty acid natural isotopic (C, N, S) data from sites in the Bransfield Strait J. Bell, W. D. K. Reid, D. A. Pearce, A. G. Glover, A. G., C. J. Sweeting, J. Newton, and C. Woulds https://doi.org/10.5518/301

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Short summary

Sedimented hydrothermal vents are among the least studied deep-sea ecosystems. We compared food webs between hydrothermally active and off-vent areas of the Bransfield Strait, Antarctica. Invertebrates showed diverse feeding strategies and occupied different positions in food webs between vent and non-vent sites. Feeding and microbial diversity was lowest at vent sites. Chemosynthetic organic matter was a minimal food source at both vents and non-vents.