Supply of Food and Colonists

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Supply of Food and Colonists to Seamount
Communities
Lauren Mullineaux Biology Department Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution
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Benthic Organisms - Feeding
Brusca and Brusca 2003
Current
Food
Gorgonian
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Seamount Generalizations
Seamounts are biological hot spots
DASS Sci. Party, NOAA, IFE
MITS II Sci. Party, NOAA, IFE
. . . but not always
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Benthic Organisms - Reproducing
Brusca and Brusca 2003
Anthozoan Life Cycle
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Seamount Generalizations
Seamounts are sites of endemism
DASS Sci. Party, NOAA, IFE
MITS II Sci. Party, NOAA, IFE
. . . but not always
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Working Hypotheses

• Enhanced food supply causes high benthic biomass
• Restricted dispersal causes population isolation
  and endemism
• Physical processes strongly influence both
  feeding and dispersal

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Enhanced Food Supply Mechanisms

• Upwelling

Genin and Boehlert 1985
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Enhanced Food Supply Mechanisms
2. Topographic blocking
Zooplankton
Current
Day Night
Day
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Enhanced Food Supply Mechanisms
3. Enhanced flux
Brink 1995
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Enhanced Food Supply - Fluxes
Genin et al. 1986

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Restricted Dispersal

• Retention above Seamounts

Top View 150 m depth
Side View Summit at 300 m
Beckmann and Mohn 2002
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Restricted Dispersal

• Retention of Larvae

Mullineaux and Mills 1997
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Facilitated Dispersal

• Population connectivity along chains

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Goal

• Understand bio-physical interactions well
  enough to predict abundance and distribution of
  species
• Seamounts are a particularly good habitat for
  this