*How Deep-Sea Wood Falls Sustain Chemosynthetic Life*
- Christina Bienhold
- Petra Pop Ristova,
- Frank Wenzhöfer,
- Thorsten Dittmar,
- Antje Boetius
Abstract
Large organic food falls to the deep sea – such as whale carcasses and wood
logs – are known to serve as stepping stones for the dispersal of highly
adapted chemosynthetic organisms inhabiting hot vents and cold seeps. Here
we investigated the biogeochemical and microbiological processes leading to
the development of sulfidic niches by deploying wood colonization
experiments at a depth of 1690 m in the Eastern Mediterranean for one year.
Wood-boring bivalves of the genus *Xylophaga* played a key role in the
degradation of the wood logs, facilitating the development of anoxic zones
and anaerobic microbial processes such as sulfate reduction. Fauna and
bacteria associated with the wood included types reported from other
deep-sea habitats including chemosynthetic ecosystems, confirming the
potential role of large organic food falls as biodiversity hot spots and
stepping stones for vent and seep communities. Specific bacterial
communities developed on and around the wood falls within one year and were
distinct from freshly submerged wood and background sediments. These
included sulfate-reducing and cellulolytic bacterial taxa, which are likely
to play an important role in the utilization of wood by chemosynthetic life
and other deep-sea animals.
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0053590
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