Unanticipated discovery of two rare gastropod molluscs from recently located hydrothermally influenced areas in the Okinawa Trough

PeerJ

article

Chong Chen¹  Hiromi Kayama Watanabe²  Junichi Miyazaki¹  Shinsuke Kawagucci¹ 

[1] Department of Subsurface Geobiological Analysis and Research, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology;Department of Marine Biodiversity Research, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology;Research and Development Center for Submarine Resources, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology;Project Team for Development of New-generation Research Protocol for Submarine Resources, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology

关键词: Calliostomatidae;    Chemosynthetic ecosystem;    Deep-sea;    East China sea;    Gastropoda;    Hydrothermal vent;    Mollusca;    Muricidae;    Range extension;   

DOI  :  10.7717/peerj.4121

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Inra

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThe deep-sea hydrothermal vent is one of the most ‘extreme’ environments in the marine realm. Few species are capable of inhabiting such ecosystems, despite extremely high productivity there supported by microbial chemosynthesis, leading to high biomass and low species richness. Although gastropod molluscs are one of the main constituents of megafaunal communities at vent ecosystems, most species belong to several typical families (e.g., Provannidae, Peltospiridae, Lepetodrilidae) specialised and adapted to life at vents.MethodsDuring recent surveys of Okinawa Trough hydrothermal vent systems, two snails atypical of vent ecosystems were unexpectedly found in newly discovered hydrothermally influenced areas. Shell and radular characteristics were used to identify the gastropods morphologically.ResultsOne species was a vetigastropod, the calliostomatid Tristichotrochus ikukoae (Sakurai, 1994); and the other was a caenogastropod, the muricid Abyssotrophon soyoae (Okutani, 1959). Both gastropods were previously only known from regular non-chemosynthetic deep-sea and very rare—only two definitive published records exist for T. ikukoae and three for A. soyoae. The radula formula of Tristichotrochus ikukoae is accurately reported for the first time and based on that it is returned to genus Otukaia. For both species, barcode sequences of the cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) gene were obtained and deposited for future references.DiscussionThese new records represent the second record of calliostomatids from vents (third from chemosynthetic ecosystems) and the third record of muricids from vents (tenth from chemosynthetic ecosystems), and extend the distribution of both species to the southwest. Neither family has been recorded at chemosynthetic ecosystems in the western Pacific. Both were from weakly diffuse flow areas not subject to high temperature venting but were nevertheless associated with typical vent-reliant taxa such as Lamellibrachia tubeworms and Bathymodiolus mussels. These new records show that these species are capable of tolerating environmental stress associated with weak hydrothermally influenced areas, despite not being vent endemic species, adding to the list of known vent/non-vent species intersections. This signifies that such weakly influenced areas may provide key habitats for them, and that such areas may play a role in the evolution of biological adaptations to ‘extreme’ chemosynthetic ecosystems.

【 授权许可】

CC BY