Citation:

bg-9-5031-2012

Always quote citation above when using data! You can download the citation in several formats below.

RIS Citation BibTeX Citation Text Citation Facebook TwitterShow Map Google Earth

Abstract:

The giant pockmark REGAB (West African margin, 3160 m water depth) is an active methane-emitting cold seep ecosystem, where the energy derived from microbially mediated oxidation of methane supports high biomass and diversity of chemosynthetic communities. Bare sediments interspersed with heterogeneous chemosynthetic assemblages of mytilid mussels, vesicomyid clams and siboglinid tubeworms form a complex seep ecosystem. To better understand if benthic bacterial communities reflect the patchy distribution of chemosynthetic fauna, all major chemosynthetic habitats at REGAB were investigated using an interdisciplinary approach combining porewater geochemistry, in situ quantification of fluxes and consumption of methane, as well bacterial community fingerprinting. This study revealed that sediments populated by different fauna assemblages show distinct biogeochemical activities and are associated with distinct sediment bacterial communities. The methane consumption and methane effluxes ranged over one to two orders of magnitude across habitats, and reached highest values at the mussel habitat, which hosted a different bacterial community compared to the other habitats. Clam assemblages had a profound impact on the sediment geochemistry, but less so on the bacterial community structure. Moreover, all clam assemblages at REGAB were restricted to sediments characterized by complete methane consumption in the seafloor, and intermediate biogeochemical activity. Overall, variations in the sediment geochemistry were reflected in the distribution of both fauna and microbial communities; and were mostly determined by methane flux.

Related to:

Duperron, Sébastien; Guezi, H; Gaudron, Sylvie Marylène; Pop Ristova, Petra; Wenzhöfer, Frank; Boetius, Antje (2011): Relative abundance of methane- and sulphur-oxidising symbionts in the gills of a cold seep mussel and link to their potential energy sources. Geobiology, 9(6), 481-491, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1472-4669.2011.00300.x

Project(s):

Center for Marine Environmental Sciences (MARUM)

Coverage:

Median Latitude: -5.798434 * Median Longitude: 9.709782 * South-bound Latitude: -5.799800 * West-bound Longitude: 9.707960 * North-bound Latitude: -5.797000 * East-bound Longitude: 9.711620

Date/Time Start: 2008-07-24T23:02:10 * Date/Time End: 2008-08-16T07:16:01

License:

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC-BY-3.0)

Size:

5 datasets

Download Data

Download ZIP file containing all datasets as tab-delimited text — use the following character encoding:

Datasets listed in this publication series

Pop Ristova, P; Wenzhöfer, F; Ramette, A et al. (2012): Bacterial single cell number measurements during METEOR cruise M76/3b at the REGAB seep site in 2008. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.788881
Pop Ristova, P; Wenzhöfer, F; Ramette, A et al. (2012): Anaerobic oxidation methane rates during METEOR cruise M76/3b at the REGAB seep site in 2008. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.788768
Pop Ristova, P; Wenzhöfer, F; Ramette, A et al. (2012): pH measurements during METEOR cruise M76/3b at the REGAB seep site in 2008. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.788773
Pop Ristova, P; Wenzhöfer, F; Ramette, A et al. (2012): Porewater measurements during METEOR cruise M76/3b at the REGAB seep site in 2008. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.788786
Pop Ristova, P; Wenzhöfer, F; Ramette, A et al. (2012): Sulphate consumption rates during METEOR cruise M76/3b at the REGAB seep site in 2008. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.788882