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13C/12C of organisms from Juan de Fuca Ridge hydrothermal vents: a guide to carbon and food sources

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

A.J. Southward ,
E.C. Southward ,
B. Spiro ,
G.H. Rau  and
V. Tunnicliffe
A.J. Southward
Affiliation:
Marine Biological Association, The Laboratory, Citadel Hill, Plymouth, PL1 2PB. Department of Biology, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, V8W 2Y2.
E.C. Southward
Affiliation:
Marine Biological Association, The Laboratory, Citadel Hill, Plymouth, PL1 2PB. Department of Biology, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, V8W 2Y2.
B. Spiro
Affiliation:
NERC Isotope Geosciences Laboratories, Keyworth, Nottingham, NG12 5GG.
G.H. Rau
Affiliation:
Institute of Marine Sciences, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 94035, USA
V. Tunnicliffe
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, V8W 2Y2.
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Abstract

Soft tissue δ13C values were determined in vestimentiferan tube worms, alvinellid polychaetes and molluscs from Axial Seamount and Middle Valley, North-east Pacific. Inorganic carbon in mollusc shells and water samples was also analysed. In the vestimentiferan, Ridgeia piscesae, which lives in symbiosis with sulphur-oxidizing chemolithoautotrophic bacteria, tissue samples from the Axial vents showed δ13C values from −11 to −16‰, whereas at Middle Valley, where venting occurs through sediments, the δ13C ranged from −16 to −26‰. The tissues of an associated polychaete, Paralvinella palmiformis, which feeds on free-living bacteria, had δ13C values in the range −21 to −26‰. The bivalve Calyptogena from Middle Valley was more depleted than Ridgeia and Paralvinella, −37‰, closer to the ratios found in chemolithoautotrophic symbioses in non-vent habitats. Considerable, but variable, depletion (−23 to −42‰) was found in small gastropods. Mollusc shells and diluted vent water differed little in δ13C compared to inorganic carbon in ambient deep sea-water.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 74 , Issue 2 , May 1994 , pp. 265 - 278
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1994

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