Interactions in the deep sea
Date
2019-08Author
Allcock, A. Louise
Johnson, Mark P.
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Allcock, A. Louise, & Johnson, Mark P. (2019). Interactions in the deep sea. In Stephen J. Hawkins, Katrin Bohn, Louise B. Firth, & Gray A. Williams (Eds.), Interactions in the Marine Benthos Global Patterns and Processes (Systematics Association Special Volume Series). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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Abstract
The deep–ocean floor extends over two thirds of the world’s surface, and is thus
the largest benthic habitat on the planet. The myth of depauperate deep–sea
communities was debunked in the 1960s by the pioneering work of Hessler and
Sanders (Hessler and Sanders, 1967; Sanders and Hessler, 1969) with their
newly developed epibenthic sled. They showed deep–sea diversity to be
equivalent to that found in shallow tropical marine habitats, and greater than in
boreal tropical and temperate estuaries and boreal shallow marine habitats.
They also identified depth as the most important correlate of faunal abundance
and as a factor driving community composition. Technological developments
over the last 50 years have continued to drive advances in our knowledge of this
diverse and heterogeneous biome. Efforts to enumerate and catalogue the
diversity have led to claims of high levels of endemism (E.g., Wolff, 1970;
Belyaev, 1989; Stocks and Hart, 2007; Ebbe et al., 2010) but poor knowledge of
the global species pool and uneven regional sampling probably artifactually
inflate these estimates (e.g., Rowden et al., 2010; Clark et al., 2012).
The term “deep sea” encompasses many different habitats, shaped by their
physical characteristics – geographic location, slope, depth – which determine
their biodiversity and dominant fauna, and their connectivity. Here, we first
explore biogeography and phylogeography of these habitats, and consider some
of the molecular work which is testing various biogeographic schemes. We then
look briefly at some of the abiotic parameters that characterise various deep-sea
habitats. Interactions in the deep sea are many, but they are often not well
investigated. Few studies on competition and predation match the detail of
those conducted in shallow waters. In constrast, symbioses have been better
researched, being the basis of much productivity at hydrothermal vents and cold
seeps, and highly prevalent in filter-feeder dominated habitats on the steep
slopes of submarine canyons and seamounts. Finally we explore where
sufficient bodies of work exist to allow us to infer processes from patterns, and
conclude that very much more work on ecological interactions in the deep-sea is
needed.