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Different energy sources for three symbiont-dependent bivalve molluscs at the Logatchev hydrothermal site (Mid-Atlantic Ridge)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 September 2001

Eve C. Southward
Affiliation:
Marine Biological Association, The Laboratory, Citadel Hill, Plymouth, PL1 2PB, UK
Andrey Gebruk
Affiliation:
P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Nakhimovsky Pr. 36, Moscow, 117851, Russia
Hilary Kennedy
Affiliation:
School of Ocean Sciences, University of Wales, Bangor, Menai Bridge, Anglesey, LL59 5EY, UK
Alan J. Southward
Affiliation:
Marine Biological Association, The Laboratory, Citadel Hill, Plymouth, PL1 2PB, UK
Pierre Chevaldonné
Affiliation:
UMR DIMAR, Centre d'Océanologie de Marseille, Station Marine d'Endoume, Rue de la Batterie des Lions, 13007 Marseille, France

Abstract

The vent mussel Bathymodiolus puteoserpentis, a large vesicomyid clam and a smaller thyasirid were collected from an area of sediment subject to diffuse hydrothermal flow. The mussels live on the surface, the vesicomyids are partly buried and the thyasirids burrow in the sediment. The fine structure of the gills differs in the three bivalves. Bathymodiolus puteoserpentis hosts two types of bacterial symbiont, one methanotrophic, and another probably thiotrophic. The other two bivalves have single types of symbiont of different shapes. Stable isotope ratios of carbon and nitrogen indicate thiotrophy in the vesicomyid and thyasirid, but a predominance of methanotrophy in the mussel. This is the first time that such an assemblage has been found at a hydrothermal site on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR), with the different faunistic elements exploiting different energy resources.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
2001 Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom

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