East Pacific Rise Cruise 2004: Extreme 2004
FWF research project No. P16774-B03
Projects:
Quantitative Meiobenthos Collections
Discovery of a new Nemertine
The Search for Babies
Baby Traps – The next generation
DOC grant, Academy of Science
Collaboration with scientists and crew
11/29/2002 - 12/20/2004
Chief scientist: C. Cary (University of Delaware, USA)
Austrian participants:
Monika Bright
Research Vessel Atlantis
Deep Submerged Vehicle Alvin
We were invited to continue our research at deep-sea hydrothermal vents at the East Pacific Rise f9°N. We would like to thank C. Cary and his team for their support.
More informations about Alvin and Atlantis and all cruises are provided on the WHOI website.
Further informations about the Cruise Extreme 2004 and a Cruise diary (in german) are provided on the Extrem for Kids website.
Quantitative Meiobenthos Collections 2004
This time, we were able to collect several samples from Alvinella pompejana aggregations on sulfides. This habitat is extremely interesting to us because it is the hottest vent environment inhabited by animals. However, not only a few macrobenthic animals were found there, but we discovered also meiobenthic animals, mostly copepods.
Available diploma theses: Meiobenthos
Collection of meiobenthos from Michael’s vent Copepod from Alvinella aggregation
Discovery of a new Nemertine
In a collection of Riftia during the dive #4073 at the sulfide mount 13 °N , we found several small, pink worms. They are undecribed nemertines and are currenty investigated.
Riftia aggregation from 13 °N Pink nemertines from Riftia aggregation
Hochschuljubiläumsfond der Stadt Wien, Academy of Science
The Search for Babies
In December 2003, we deployed 5 artificial settlement devices (Baby traps) in a clump of large tubeworms. Unfortunately, these devices were displaced somehow during the last year. When returning to the site, we found them on bare basalt with no baby tubeworms on them.
Deployment of babytraps December 2003 Recovery of babytraps December 2004
Baby Traps – The next generation
In order to prevent displacement and loss of traps in large aggregations, we used a different design of deployment. The babytaps were mounted on 2 m long glass fibre sticks and deployed in a large Riftia aggregation at Tica.
We would like to thank the Alvin crew and especially senior pilot Bruce Strickland for the design and building of the devices. In honor of Bruce we name the next generation of Babytraps ‘Bruce’s sticks’.
Bruce Strickland with ‘Bruce’s sticks’ Mounting ‘Bruce’s sticks’ on the basket of Alvin
Deployment during dive#4071, Monika’s dive Bruce’s sticks in large Riftia aggregation at Tica
DOC grant, Academy of Science - Incubations of Riftia pachyptila
The smallest symbiosis ‘unit’ is the host bacteriocyte housing the endosymbiotic bacteria. The distribution and morphology of the bacteriocyte within the trophosome suggests that a specific cell cycle with terminal differentiation is present. In order to test this hypothesis we conducted a time series of incubations using 3H thymidine and Brdu (a thymidine analog), which are incorporated in DNA during synthesis.
Sampling of large Riftia on which juvenile tubeworms settle Searching for small tubeworms for incubations