Abstract
Rotifers, one of the smallest metazoans, are only seldom found in marine environments. Surprisingly, we discovered high abundances of at least two new species of rotifers settling in anoxic and highly sulphidic sediments associated with shallow gas hydrates (GH) at the southern crest of Hydrate Ridge off Oregon, NE Pacific, in a water depth of about 780 m. At basins adjacent to Hydrate Ridge, 1,285–2,304 m deep, we found rotifers co-occurring with the sulphide-oxidising bacteria Thioploca sp.
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful for the support of the officers and crew of RV "Sonne" during cruise SO 143/2. Many thanks are due to A. Kähler and W. Queisser for their assistance aboard the ship. Cruise SO 143/2 was supported by the German Federal Ministry of Research and Education (BMBF) as part of the TECFLUX project, contract no. Fkz03G0143A.
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Sommer, S., Gutzmann, E., Ahlrichs, W. et al. Rotifers colonising sediments with shallow gas hydrates. Naturwissenschaften 90, 273–276 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-003-0423-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-003-0423-6