Functional effects of the hadal sea cucumber Elpidia atakama (Echinodermata: Holothuroidea, Elasipodida) reflect small-scale patterns of resource availability
Holothuroidea represent the dominant benthic megafauna in hadal trenches (similar to 6,000-11,000 m), but little is known about their behaviour and functional role at such depths. Using a time-lapse camera at 8,074 m in the Peru-Chile Trench (SE Pacific Ocean), we provide the first in situ observati...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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2011-12.
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| Online Access: | Get fulltext |
| LEADER | 01524 am a22001573u 4500 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 001 | 210855 | ||
| 042 | |a dc | ||
| 100 | 1 | 0 | |a Jamieson, A.J. |e author |
| 700 | 1 | 0 | |a Gebruk, A. |e author |
| 700 | 1 | 0 | |a Fujii, T. |e author |
| 700 | 1 | 0 | |a Solan, M. |e author |
| 245 | 0 | 0 | |a Functional effects of the hadal sea cucumber Elpidia atakama (Echinodermata: Holothuroidea, Elasipodida) reflect small-scale patterns of resource availability |
| 260 | |c 2011-12. | ||
| 856 | |z Get fulltext |u https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/210855/1/jamieson_etal2011.pdf | ||
| 520 | |a Holothuroidea represent the dominant benthic megafauna in hadal trenches (similar to 6,000-11,000 m), but little is known about their behaviour and functional role at such depths. Using a time-lapse camera at 8,074 m in the Peru-Chile Trench (SE Pacific Ocean), we provide the first in situ observations of locomotory activity for the elasipodid holothurian Elpidia atakama Belyaev in Shirshov Inst Oceanol 92: 326-367, (1971). Time-lapse sequences reveal 'run and mill' behaviour whereby bouts of feeding activity are interspersed by periods of locomotion. Over the total observation period (20 h 25 min), we observed a mean (+/- SD) locomotion speed of 7.0 +/- 5.7 BL h(-1), but this increased to 10.9 +/- 7.2 BL h(-1) during active relocation and reduced to 4.8 +/- 2.9 BL h(-1) during feeding. These observations show E. atakama translocates and processes sediment at rates comparable to shallower species despite extreme hydrostatic pressure and remoteness from surface-derived food. | ||
| 655 | 7 | |a Article | |