Deep-Sea Biodiversity: A Morphological Dimension

深海生物多样性：形态维度

• 批准号: 0135949
• 负责人: Michael Rex
• 金额: $ 17.51万
• 依托单位: University of Massachusetts Boston
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2002
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2002-04-15 至 2005-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0135949&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Deep; Sea; Biodiversity; Morphological; Dimension

Research on the biodiversity of deep-sea soft sediment habitats has centered largely on a?diversity, that is estimating local species diversity and its geographic variation in the ontext of traditional explanations involving disturbance, biological interactions and environmental heterogeneity. Little is known about the natural history and distributional patterns of the species themselves - information that is vital to understanding the roles species play in community organization, and the relationship between local diversity and the regional-scale processes that ultimately regulate it. Here we propose two avenues of research to relate biogeographic and life-history characteristics of species to deep-sea species diversity. The first is to introduce morphological variation in shell architecture of gastropods as a new dimension of biodiversity. The second is to explore the relationship of body size to depth within and among species of prosobranch snails. Both add a new level of understanding about how deep-sea communities are structured that could not be attained by analyses of simple a-diversity. The proposed research directly addresses the NSF Biological Oceanography theme of Biological Diversity in Marine Systems, particularly the areas of distribution, abundance, and life history of marine organisms from deep-sea ecosystems; adaptations of marine organisms; and their population ecology.1. Morphological Variation. We present a preliminary analysis of bathymetric ranges and variation in shell architecture in lower bathyal and abyssal assemblages of gastropods from the western North Atlantic. The abyssal fauna is revealed to be merely a subset of the bathyal fauna consisting of species that extend their ranges deeper and out onto the abyss. In gastropods, shell architecture reflects feeding type, mode of development, predator defense mechanisms, locomotion and calcium carbonate conservation. We construct both empirical and theoretical morphospaces of shell form by using an eigenshape analysis and Raups model of shell geometry. Both approaches yield the same result. In terms of the range of basic shell types, the abyssal fauna appears to be a random subset of the richer bathyal fauna. However, the abyssal fauna is dominated numerically by a few core deposit-feeding species of bathyal origin with shells that are preadapted for carbonate conservation below the CaCO3 compensation depth. The combination of morphological variation, bathymetric range, feeding type and dispersal ability suggests a new hypothesis for abyssal biodiversity that is radically different from the ecological determinism of current theories. We propose that bathyal and abyssal environments comprise a source-sink system in which the abyssal fauna largely represents a mass effect. The abyssal fauna appears to be an attenuation of the bathyal fauna with a small minority of abundant species, and a majority of extremely rare species that may represent nonreproducing populations maintained by dispersal. We will test this hypothesis by extending the analysis to four other deep-sea basins, and by determining the reproductive state of bathyal and abyssal populations of the same species. Since the great abyssal plains represent such a huge ecosystem, this research has very significant implications for the genesis and maintenance of diversity, and for estimating the level of global deep-sea biodiversity.2. Body Size. Body size is an issue of fundamental significance in biology, and one that has an important bearing on abundance, distribution, macroecology and biodiversity.Results from prior NSF support (OCE-9301687) showed that, in contrast to the prevailing view, individual gastropod species increase in size with depth. Size-depth clines decrease in slope with depth and bathymetric ranges expand. We present a conceptual model that integrates this very consistent trend within species with the observation that average size among species appears to decrease with depth. We propose measuring the average size component of the model. This research has the potential to reconcile a very basic paradox in deep-sea ecology, and will provide, by far, the largest and most well-controlled database on size in the deep-sea benthos.

关于深海软沉积物栖息地的生物多样性的研究主要集中在多样性上，这估计了当地物种的多样性及其在传统解释中的地理差异，涉及干扰，生物学相互作用和环境异质性。 对物种本身的自然历史和分布模式知之甚少 - 了解物种在社区组织中所起的作用至关重要，以及当地多样性与最终调节的区域规模过程之间的关系。在这里，我们提出了两种研究途径，以将物种的生物地理和生活历史特征与深海物种多样性联系起来。首先是引入腹足类动物的壳体结构的形态变化，作为生物多样性的新维度。第二个是探索身体大小与深度之间和深度之间的关系。两者都增加了对深海社区的结构的新水平，这些结构无法通过简单A多样性的分析来实现。拟议的研究直接介绍了海洋系统中生物多样性的NSF生物海洋学主题，尤其是深海生态系统的海洋生物的分配，丰度和生活历史；适应海洋生物；及其人口生态学1。形态变化。我们对北大西洋西部的腹足类动物的壳体结构的测深范围和壳结构的变化进行了初步分析。深渊动物区系揭示仅是Bathyal动物区系的一个子集，该物种将它们的范围更深地扩展到深渊。在腹足动物中，壳体结构反映了喂养类型，开发方式，捕食者防御机制，运动和碳酸钙保护。我们通过使用特征性分析和外壳几何形状模型来构建壳形式的经验和理论形态。两种方法都产生相同的结果。就基本壳类型的范围而言，深渊动物区系似乎是富裕的Bathyal动物区系的一个随机子集。但是，深渊动物区系在数值上由几种核心沉积物饲养物种的bathyal起源物种主导，其贝壳被贝壳预先预先用于CACO3补偿深度以下的碳酸盐保护。形态变化，测深范围，进食类型和分散能力的结合表明，深渊生物多样性的新假设与当前理论的生态决定论完全不同。我们建议Bathyal和Abyssal环境组成了一个源 - 链接系统，其中深渊动物区系在很大程度上代表了质量效应。深渊动物区系似乎是少数丰富物种的Bathyal动物区系的衰减，而大多数极稀有物种可能代表通过扩散维持的非培养人群。我们将通过将分析扩展到其他四个深海盆地，并确定同一物种的Bathyal和Abyssal种群的生殖状态来检验这一假设。由于伟大的深渊平原代表了如此巨大的生态系统，因此这项研究对多样性的起源和维持具有非常重要的影响，并估计了全球深海生物多样性的水平。2。身体大小。身体大小是生物学基本意义的问题，它具有重要的影响，与以前的NSF支持（OCE-9301687）的重新分配有关，与盛行的观点相反，单个胃足类物种随着深度的大小而增加。尺寸深度的克林在斜坡上随着深度而降低，而测深的范围会扩大。我们提出了一个概念模型，该模型将这种非常一致的趋势整合在一起，即观察到物种之间的平均大小似乎随深度下降而减小。我们建议测量模型的平均尺寸成分。这项研究有可能调和深海生态学中非常基本的悖论，并将在深海底栖生物的大小上提供最大，最受控制的数据库。