MEPS

Marine Ecology Progress Series

MEPS is a leading hybrid research journal on all aspects of marine, coastal and estuarine ecology. Priority is given to outstanding research that advances our ecological understanding.

Online: ISSN 1616-1599

Print: ISSN 0171-8630

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/meps

Impact Factor2.1 (JCR 2025 release)

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Volume contents
Mar Ecol Prog Ser 292:51-60 (2005)

Nutritional associations among fauna at hydrocarbon seep communities in the Gulf of Mexico

ABSTRACT: The Gulf of Mexico supports dense aggregations of megafauna associated with hydrocarbon seeps on the Louisiana Slope. The visually dominant megafauna at the seeps—mussels and tube worms—derive their nutrition from symbioticrelationships with sulfide or methane-oxidizing bacteria. The structure of the tube worm aggregations provide biogenic habitat for numerous species of heterotrophic animals. Carbon, nitrogen and sulfur stable isotope analyses of heterotrophic faunacollected with tube worm aggregations in the Green Canyon Lease area (GC 185) indicate that most of these species derive the bulk of their nutrition from chemoautolithotrophic sources. The isotope analyses also indicate that although 2 species may bederiving significant nutritional input from the bivalves, none of the species analyzed were feeding directly on the tube worms. Grazing gastropods and deposit-feeding sipunculids were used to estimate the isotopic value of the free-livingchemoautolithotrophic bacteria associated with the tube worms (δ13C –32 to –20‰; δ15N 0 to 7‰; δ34S –14 to –1‰). The use of tissue δ34S analyses inconjunction with tissue δ13C and δ15N led to several insights into the trophic biology of the communities that would not have been evident from tissue stable C and N analyses alone.

KEYWORDS

Stephen E. MacAvoy (Co-author)

  • Biology Department, American University, Washington, DC 20016, USA
  • Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 22903, USA

Robert S. Carney (Co-author)

  • Coastal Studies Institute, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803, USA

Stephen A. Macko (Co-author)

  • Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 22903, USA