The ecology of xenophyophores (Protista) on eastern Pacific seamounts
Abstract
Large, agglutinating protozoans of the class Xenophyophorea are the dominant epifaunal organisms on soft and hard substrates of many bathyal seamounts in the eastern Pacific Ocean off Mexico. Observations made with the submersible Alvin and remotely towed camera sleds on 17 seamounts at 31°, 20°, 13° and 10°N revealed more than ten distinct xenophyophore test morphologies. Most of these appear to represent previously undescribed species. Reticulate forms are numerically dominant at 20°, 13° and 10°N. Xenophyophore abundances increase with decreasing latitude, being rare at 30°N, present at densities of 0.1-1.0 m -2 at 20° and 13°N and often exceeding 1.0 m -2 at 10°N, occasionally reaching 10-18 m -2. Highest concentrations are observed on caldera floors near the base of steep caldera walls, at depths between 1700 and 2500 m. Most individuals select sand-size pelagic foraminiferan tests (63-500 μm) and exclude pebble, silt and clay-size particles for test construction. Xenophyophore on seamounts modify the structure of metazoan communities and may play a role in maintenance of infaunal diversity. Twenty-seven xenophyophore tests were found to provide habitat for 16 major macrofaunal taxa (152 individuals) and three meiofaunal taxa (333 individuals). The presence of xenophyophores also enhances the abundance of isopods, tanaids, ophiuroids, nematodes and harpacticoid copepods dwelling in sediments surrounding the tests. Mobile megafauna are attracted to sediment beneath and adjacent to xenophyophores. We suggest that xenophyophores, which are abundant on many topographic features in deep water (e.g. guyots, trenches, canyons and continental slopes), are a functionally important component of deep-sea benthic communities and require further autecological and synecological investigation.
- Publication:
-
Deep Sea Research A
- Pub Date:
- December 1988
- DOI:
- 10.1016/0198-0149(88)90122-7
- Bibcode:
- 1988DSRA...35.2003L