Gulf of Mexico Cruise: AT 15-03
The U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, MINERALS MANAGEMENT SERVICE
Projects:
Quantitative Meiobenthos Collections
Sclerolinum Symbiosis
Discovery of the largest free-living nematode
5/7/2006 - 6/2/2006
Chief scientists: C. R. Fisher (PennState University, USA) and H. Roberts (Louisiana State University, USA)
Austrian participants:
Monika Bright
Research Vessel Atlantis
Deep Submerged Vehicle Alvin
I was invited to study the meiobenthic chemosynthetic communities at deep-sea cold seeps below 1,000 m depth in the Gulf of Mexico. I would like to thank C. R. Fisher for his support. Special thanks to Eric Cordez and Stephane Hourdez for their fruitful and pleasant collaboration. More informations about Alvin and Atlantis and all cruises are provided on the WHOI website.
Quantitative Meiobenthos Collections 2006
The objective of this study is to characterize the meiobenthic chemosynthetic communities at depths below 1,000 m in the Gulf of Mexico in order to understand how these deep communities are similar or different from their shallower counterparts. We collected mainly 4 communities characterized by the occurrence of large macrofauna animals such as vestimentiferan tubeworms, Sclerolinum tubeworms, mussels, and sea urchins.
Available diploma theses: Meiobenthos
mussel aggregation tubeworm aggregation
Sclerolinum Symbiosis
At one of the sites, we found large aggregations of a new species of Sclerolinum. Representatives of this genus are known from deep-sea wood falls and live in symbiosis with endosymbiotic bacteria in the trophosome. The symbiosis of this new species will be studied in detail.
new species of Sclerolinum
Discovery of the largest free-living nematode
At one of the sites, we found a very large up to 2.5 cm long free-living nematode associated with mussels.
new species of nematode