Assessment of dissolved nutrients dispersal derived from offshore fish-farm using nitrogen stable isotope ratios (δ15N) in macroalgal bioassays

In this study, the dispersal of wastes from offshore fish farms was evaluated by analyzing nitrogen stable isotope ratios (δ¹⁵N) in macroalgae incubated in the water column at sites located at an increasing distance from the fish cages. Bioassays were performed at three fish farms situated in separate localities with different nutritional conditions (Canary Islands, Murcia and Catalonia) and varying in size, species of fish reared and annual production. Macroalgal bioassays were carried out in two different directions (DI and DII) and they were replicated at each distance in order to evaluate the effect of small-scale variability on the spatial extent of fish farm wastes. The results obtained with δ¹⁵N contribute to a better understanding of the application of nitrogen stable isotopes ratios in macroalgae as an effective bioindicator for tracing the dispersion of offshore fish farm wastes, and demonstrate that fish farm wastes can be traced even over distances of some km from the pollution source. In the Canary Islands, the maximum distance obtained for detection of fish farm wastes was between 450 and 700 m. Of the three installations studied, Murcia presented the greatest distance for detection of fish farm waste influence, ranging from between 1550 and 2450 m, whilst in Catalonia this distance was less than 120 m. In Catalonia, the results were masked by the influence of other sources of nitrogen, and thus fish farm wastes were detected at more reduced distances than expected. These results confirm that fish farm wastes can be traced using the nitrogen stable isotope ratios of macroalgae and that this method can also be useful for identifying areas of potential risk to some sensitive ecosystems, and as an early signal that changes in the community structure might occur.     

Rare Earth and Metal Geochemistry of Land and Submarine Phosphorites in the Baja California Peninsula,Mexico

The geochemical composition of phosphorites and phosphatic sediments in the Baja California peninsula is studied and used to assess the environment in which phosphogenesis took place. The deposits are classified in three groups: (1) stratified phosphorites, (2) phosphatic sandy sediments from beaches and dunes, and (3) submarine sediments. Some of the elements that might have substituted Ca and PO₄ during francolite mineralization were studied by means of ICP-AES. Significant differences are seen in the concentration of these metals (e.g., Cr = 72-406 μg g^?1 and V = 17-198 μg g^?1), indicating that their concentration is not only controlled by the P₂O₅ concentration, but also by paleo-environmental conditions existing during francolite precipitation. Shale normalized REE patterns suggest two main environments of formation: (1) a strong negative Ce anomaly (< ? 0.3) and La enrichment (La/Nd ≥ 1) enrichment, suggesting well oxygenated shelf environments and probably lower light REE weathering, and (2) a weak negative Ce anomaly (> ? 0.3) and La depletion (La/Nd ≤ 1) suggesting shallower waters or restricted circulation and probably LREE weathering.     

Past and present sedimentary activity in the Capbreton Canyon, southern Bay of Biscay

Located in the south-eastern part of the Bay of Biscay, the Capbreton Canyon incises the continental shelf up to the 30 m isobath contour, and acts as a natural conduit for continental and shelf-derived sediments. EM1000 multibeam bathymetry shows two main features characterising the canyon — a deeply entrenched meandering channel, bordered by fluvial-like terraces constituting large sediment traps. A dataset of cores and seismic profiles together with a multibeam bathymetry map has enabled the characterisation of recent sedimentary activity in the axial channel and on the terraces. Data analysis evidenced the major role of the canyon head in recent sediment dynamics. This part of the canyon is a temporary reservoir for sediments, accumulated by coastal hydrodynamic processes. Exceptional climatic, tectonic or hydrodynamic events can mobilise the sediments and generate gravity-driven flows. Under the present-day sea-level highstand conditions, these flows are not powerful enough to bring their bedload to the deep sea, and are confined mainly to the upper part of the canyon. Turbidity currents model the axial channel pathway and are at the origin of terrace formation. Terraces in the Capbreton Canyon are not typical but rather are reduced to confined levees. Three factors control the vertical growth of a terrace: (1) the amount of overspilled sediments brought by turbidity currents, (2) hemipelagic sedimentation and (3) terrace height. The amount of sediment spilling over a terrace decreases with increased terrace elevation. Concurrently, the proportion of hemipelagic fallout depositing on a terrace increases. Terraces are considered to be fossil when the height of the terrace prevents further deposition by overspilling. The terraces studied in this paper are interpreted as having formed during the Holocene, implying that the sediment dynamics of the Capbreton Canyon is continuous through time. Highstand periods differ from lowstand periods because they show a decrease in the energy of erosive processes. Temporal variations in erosive and depositional processes in the canyon are controlled by the Adour River, which delivers large amounts of sediment to the system.     

First results from the North Iceland experiment

Between June 2004 and September 2004 a temporary seismic network was installed on the northern insular shelf of Iceland and onshore in north Iceland. The seismic setup aimed at resolving the subsurface structure and, thus, the geodynamical transition from Icelandic crust to typical oceanic crust along Kolbeinsey Ridge. The experiment recorded about 1,000 earthquakes. The region encloses the Tjörnes Fracture Zone containing the Husavik–Flatey strike-slip fault and the extensional seismic Grimsey Lineament. Most of the seismicity occurs in swarms offshore. Preliminary results reveal typical mid-ocean crust north of Grimsey and a heterogeneous structure with major velocity anomalies along the seismic lineaments and north–south trending subsurface features. Complementary bathymetric mapping highlight numerous extrusion features along the Grimsey Lineament and Kolbeinsey Ridge. The seismic dataset promises to deliver new insights into the tectonic framework for earthquakes in an extensional transform zone along the global mid-ocean ridge system.     

Geophysical exploration of an active pockmark field in the Bay of Concarneau,southern Brittany,and implications for resident suspension feeders

About a decade ago, a large field of pockmarks (individual features up to 30 m in diameter and <2 m deep) was discovered in water depths of 15–40 m in the Bay of Concarneau in southern Brittany along the French Atlantic coast, covering an overall area of 36 km² and characterised by unusually high pockmark densities in places reaching 2,500 per square kilometre. As revealed by geophysical swath and subbottom profile data ground-truthed by sediment cores collected during two campaigns in 2005 and 2009, the confines of the pockmark field show a spectacular spatial association with those of a vast expanse of tube mats formed by a benthic community of the suspension-feeding amphipod Haploops nirae. The present study complements those findings with subbottom chirp profiles, seabed sonar imagery and ultrasonic backscatter data from the water column acquired in April 2011. Results show that pockmark distribution is influenced by the thickness of Holocene deposits covering an Oligocene palaeo-valley system. Two groups of pockmarks were identified: (1) a group of large (>10 m diameter), more widely scattered pockmarks deeply rooted (up to 8 ms two-way travel time, TWTT) in the Holocene palaeo-valley infills, and (2) a group of smaller, more densely spaced pockmarks shallowly rooted (up to 2 ms TWTT) in interfluve deposits. Pockmark pore water analyses revealed high methane concentrations peaking at ca. 400 μl/l at 22 and 30 cm core depth in silty sediments immediately above Haploops-bearing layers. Water column data indicate acoustic plumes above pockmarks, implying ongoing pockmark activity. Pockmark gas and/or fluid expulsion resulting in increased turbidity (resuspension of, amongst others, freshly settled phytoplankton) could at least partly account for the strong spatial association with the phytoplankton-feeding H. nirae in the Bay of Concarneau, exacerbating impacts of anthropogenically induced eutrophication and growing offshore trawling activities. Tidally driven hydraulic pumping in gas-charged pockmarks represents a good candidate as large-scale short-term triggering mechanism of pockmark activation, in addition to episodic regional seismic activity.     

Trophic ecology of Pomatoschistus microps within an intertidal bay (Roscoff,France), investigated through gut content and stable isotope analyses

The diet of Pomatoschistus microps has been studied using both gut content and stable isotope analyses. In the Roscoff Aber Bay (Brittany, France), this fish is commonly found on sandy muddy intertidal flats. Gut content analyses were also interpreted using trophic indices. Owing to the large diversity of prey consumed, these indices emphasised the opportunistic feeding behaviour of P. microps. Here, this species fed mainly on endofauna with meiofauna being of high relative importance. The main biotic components of its trophic habitat, characterized by δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N, provided evidence of a major trophic pathway based on drift Enteromorpha sp. Trophic positions estimated by both diet analyses and isotopic analyses led to similar results. In this bay, P. microps is a first‐order predator with a low degree of omnivory. Despite a preferential consumption of the amphipod Corophium arenarium, we assumed that this goby behaves as a generalist feeding on a uniform variety of endofauna taxa.     

Phylogenetic position and systematics of the wood‐associate limpet genus Caymanabyssia and implications for ecological radiation into deep‐sea organic substrates by lepetelloid gastropods

The gastropod superfamily Lepetelloidea represents an extremely diverse lineage in terms of their utilization of different deep‐sea organic substrates that include sunken wood, leaves, whale and fish bones, egg cases of sharks and rays, annelid tubes and detrital cephalopod beaks among others. They also inhabit cold seeps and hydrothermal vents, thus presenting an interesting case for the evaluation of such organic substrates as ‘stepping stones’ into these chemosynthetically nourished environments. Here we show the first molecular phylogeny of the Pseudococculinidae, a primarily wood‐dwelling family and the most speciose in Lepetelloidea. Special emphasis is placed on the genus Caymanabyssia, for which the only subfamily Caymanabyssiinae has been established, and a new species Caymanabyssia solis is described herein and compared with previously known taxa in order to reconsider the morphological characteristics of lepetelloids on wood. Bayesian and likelihood trees reconstructed using four‐gene sequences reveal that Pseudococculinidae sensu auctt. is a polyphyletic taxon that is grouped by shared plesiomorphic conditions of characters including the radula, a digestive organ, the morphology of which is often governed strongly by diet and feeding ecology. The newly reinterpreted families Pseudococculinidae and Caymanabyssiidae represent reciprocal sister clades as a basal radiation in Lepetelloidea. Sunken wood might thus have served as an ancestral habitat from which species on other substrates and vent and seep taxa were derived.     

Integrative taxonomic description of Plakina kanaky,a new polychromatic sponge species from New Caledonia (Porifera: Homoscleromorpha)

Four similar sponges of different colors, all unknown to science, were collected in submarine caves of New Caledonia. We aimed at determining whether the four chromotypes represented different species or phenotypic variations of a unique new species. We used an integrative taxonomic approach combining morphologic, molecular and metabolomic analyses. The main traits that define these specimens are a skeleton made of monolophose, trilophose and tetralophose calthrops only, high chemical diversity and a high abundance and diversity of prokaryotic symbionts. The symbiotic community includes two unique prokaryote morphotypes, which are described for the first time in Homoscleromorpha, and appeared to be vertically transmitted. Although several features slightly differ among chromotypes, the most parsimonious conclusion was to propose a single new species Plakina kanaky sp. nov. Our phylogenetic analysis indicated the paraphyly of the Plakina genus, with P. kanaky sp. nov. belonging to a clade that includes Plakina jani and Plakina trilopha. The present work demonstrates that integrative taxonomy should be used in order to revise the entire Plakinidae family and especially the non‐monophyletic genus Plakina.     

Diet of Haplognathia ruberrima (Gnathostomulida) in a Caribbean marine mangrove

Haplognathia ruberrima is a cosmopolitan gnathostomulid species found in sulfur bacterial mats in mangroves in Guadeloupe (French West Indies). Haplognathia ruberrima presents a δ¹³C value lower than all measured meiofaunal grazers and lower than the available measured food sources of this environment. This low δ¹³C value can not be due to specific ingestion of ¹³C‐depleted methanogenic bacteria because abundances of those bacteria are reduced in surficial and deep sediments as revealed by δ¹³C of bacterial fatty acid. According to scanning electron microscope observations, no bacterial ectosymbionts were observed at the surface of the gnathostomulids, and transmission electron microscope views revealed the absence of bacterial endosymbionts. Energy‐dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy analysis detected low levels of sulfur (0.32%±0.8) in biological tissues of H. ruberrima, confirming the absence of thioautotrophic bacterial symbionts in these animals. Consequently, the low δ¹³C value of H. ruberrima can not be due to the presence of sulfur‐oxidizing symbionts but more probably to the selective and exclusive consumption of free‐living, sulfur‐oxidizing bacteria.