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Filters: Tags: {"type":"Theme"} (X) > partyWithName: Wetland and Aquatic Research Center (X) > partyWithName: Jill R Bourque (X)

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Deep-sea corals can create a highly complex, three-dimensional structure that facilitates sediment accumulation and influences adjacent sediment environments through altered hydrodynamic regimes. Infaunal communities adjacent to different coral types, including reef-building scleractinian corals and individual colonies of octocorals, are known to differ from background non-coral soft-sediment communities, often exhibiting higher macrofaunal densities and distinct community structure. However, the coral types have different morphologies, which may modify the adjacent sediment communities in discrete ways. Here we address two main questions: 1) how infaunal communities adjacent to deep-sea corals and their associated...
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Deep-sea corals create complex habitats that support distinct sediment communities. Several deep-sea coral habitats were impacted by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill, and recovery of associated sediment communities may take several years. While spill-associated organic enrichment may lead to increased abundances of tolerant taxa, toxic effects of the spill may lead to declines in sensitive groups. However, temporal variability in coral-associated sediment macrofauna is unknown and represents an important consideration for post-spill community assessments. Here we examine how the macrofaunal communities change over time at impacted and reference sites. From 2010 to 2016, we examined macrofaunal communities at multiple...
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Terrain variables extracted from bathymetry were used in combination with stable isotope datasets to construct geospatially-explicit isoscapes that predicted variation in carbon and nitrogen isotopes across the canyon-slope seascape, providing insights into the distribution and flow of energy resources, relevant to understanding whole community function.
Dataset of sediment geochemistry, water column parameters, and macrofaunal functional traits associated with sediment communities collected in Norfolk Canyon axis, hard substrates, and adjacent slope habitats in 2012 and 2013.
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Chemosynthetic environments support distinct benthic communities capable of utilizing reduced chemical compounds for nutrition. Hundreds of methane seeps have been documented along the U.S. Atlantic margin (USAM), and detailed investigations at a few seeps have revealed distinct environments containing mussels, microbial mats, authigenic carbonates, and soft sediments. The dominant mussel Bathymodiolus childressi contains methanotrophic endosymbionts but is also capable of filter feeding. We used SIA (δ13C, δ 5N, and δ34S) and an isotope mixing model (MixSIAR) to estimate resource contribution to B. childressi and characterize food webs at two seep sites (Baltimore Seep: 400 m and Norfolk Seep: 1500 m depths) along...
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Cold-water corals create complex structures, but our incomplete knowledge of their niche space limits our ability to understand their distribution and therefore the impact of the ecosystem services they provide in the ocean. The Richardson reef complex consists of over 150 km of linear reef tracts within an area of 75 km2 between 700-900 m depth. This reef experiences rapid shifts in temperature, and currents approaching 1 meter per second. The reef fauna cycle and sequester carbon and regenerate nutrients that help fuel the primary productivity of the region. Newly acquired multibeam sonar mapping data and predictive models indicate that cold-water coral reefs are more widespread than previously understood, necessitating...
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Submarine canyons are morphologically complex systems, acting as major conduits of organic matter along continental shelves, promoting gradients in food resources, habitat heterogeneity, and areas of sediment resuspension and deposition. Often environmental conditions within canyons can be highly distinct, particularly in different parts of the canyon and in contrast to adjacent slopes. Here we examine how biogeochemical drivers shape the differences between canyon and slope infaunal communities in Baltimore and Norfolk Canyons in the U.S. Mid-Atlantic Region. Specific comparisons included macrofaunal communities in Norfolk canyons and adjacent slope, hard substrate associated macrofaunal communities in Norfolk...
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Chemosynthetic ecosystems in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) support dense communities of seep megafaunal invertebrates that rely on endosymbiotic bacteria for nutrition. Distinct infaunal communities are associated with the biogenic habitats created by seep biota, where habitat heterogeneity and sediment geochemistry influence local macrofaunal community structure. Here we examine the variance in infaunal communities in the GOM with respect to depth, sediment geochemistry parameters, and distance to known seep habitats. Habitats were mapped based on ROV video of the seafloor. Samples were collected from three sites (AC601, GC852, and AT340) via box core in 2007 and processed for macrofauna and environmental characteristics....


    map background search result map search result map Benthic infaunal communities of Baltimore and Norfolk canyons The influence of hydrocarbon seeps on sediment macrofaunal biodiversity and functional traits Sediment macrofaunal composition, sediment grain size, and taxa functional traits of multiple deep-sea coral habitats in the Gulf of Mexico, 2009-2014 Sediment macrofaunal composition and sediment geochemistry of deep-sea coral habitats after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, 2010-2016 Stable isotopic insights into Bathymodiolus childressi at two seeps in the U.S. Atlantic margin Oceanographic conditions at Richardson reef reveal new suitable habitat for cold-water corals Sediment grain size, geochemistry, and polychaete functional traits of Norfolk Canyon (western Atlantic) axis, hard substrate, and adjacent slope habitats, 2012-2013 Stable isotope data and terrain variables for isoscape modeling around two submarine canyons in the western Atlantic sampled in 2012-2013 Sediment grain size, geochemistry, and polychaete functional traits of Norfolk Canyon (western Atlantic) axis, hard substrate, and adjacent slope habitats, 2012-2013 Oceanographic conditions at Richardson reef reveal new suitable habitat for cold-water corals Stable isotopic insights into Bathymodiolus childressi at two seeps in the U.S. Atlantic margin Benthic infaunal communities of Baltimore and Norfolk canyons Stable isotope data and terrain variables for isoscape modeling around two submarine canyons in the western Atlantic sampled in 2012-2013 Sediment macrofaunal composition and sediment geochemistry of deep-sea coral habitats after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, 2010-2016 Sediment macrofaunal composition, sediment grain size, and taxa functional traits of multiple deep-sea coral habitats in the Gulf of Mexico, 2009-2014 The influence of hydrocarbon seeps on sediment macrofaunal biodiversity and functional traits