Report of epibenthic macrofauna found from Haima cold seeps and adjacent deep-sea habitats, South China Sea
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RESEARCH PAPER
Report of epibenthic macrofauna found from Haima cold seeps and adjacent deep‑sea habitats, South China Sea Dong Dong1 · Xinzheng Li1,2,3,4 · Mei Yang1 · Lin Gong1 · Yang Li1 · Jixing Sui1 · Zhibin Gan1 · Qi Kou1 · Ning Xiao1 · Junlong Zhang1 Received: 21 January 2020 / Accepted: 6 July 2020 © The Author(s) 2020
Abstract This work reports on a preliminary taxonomic study of epibenthic macroinvertebrates collected or observed by underwater video at the Haima cold seeps and in adjacent deep-sea habitats, including a mud volcano field and Ganquan Plateau, during an expedition in the South China Sea by the Chinese-manned submersible Shenhai Yongshi in May 2018. A total of 41 species belonging to 6 phyla were identified, among which 34 species were collected from the Haima cold seeps. Mollusks and crustaceans that are specialized in reducing habitats were predominant in biotopes of the Haima cold seeps, whereas sponges and cold-water corals and their commensals were prominent in communities of the mud volcano field and the slopes of Ganquan Plateau. The distribution and faunal composition of each taxonomic group are discussed. Keywords Cold seep · Mud volcano · Ganquan plateau · Epibenthic macroinvertebrates · Faunal composition · South China Sea
Introduction Cold seeps are areas of the seafloor, where hydrocarbonrich fluid and gases leak from fissures and emerge through the sediments and into the water column, creating unique habitats. Such seepage was first discovered on the Florida Escarpment in the Gulf of Mexico (Paull et al. 1984). Since then, hundreds of cold-seep sites have been discovered and observed globally (e.g., Feng et al. 2018; German et al. 2011; Suess 2014), unveiling a specialist seepage macrofauna. Cold-seep macrofauna, being sustained by chemosynthetic Edited by Jiamei Li. * Xinzheng Li [email protected] 1
Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao 266071, China
2
Center for Ocean Mega‑Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao 266071, China
3
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
4
Laboratory for Marine Biology and Biotechnology, Pilot National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology (Qingdao), Qingdao 266237, China
primary production, typically consists of a high abundance of symbiotrophic organisms (Barry et al. 1996; Carney 1994; Levin 2005; Sibuet and Olu 1998; Washburn et al. 2018). Hence, cold seeps exhibit a community structure that is distinct from that seen in the surrounding seafloor environment. During the past three decades, numerous studies have been performed, driven by efforts to explore these special habitats and their associated organisms. Some studies have focused on the taxonomy and phylogeny of organisms associated with cold seeps, aiming to discover new species and new distribution records, evaluate phylogenetic relationships, and reconstruct the origins and evolutionary histories of seepage faunas (e.g., Chen et al. 2018; Dong and Li 2015; Xu et al. 2019). Other studies have focused on the
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