SIO277: Deep Sea Biology

Fall 2009 - Class Photo

More photos from the class cruise and costumes can be found at:

Description:  The course will explore many facets of the ocean’s largest ecosystem, the deep sea. We will cover history of exploration, the environment, composition, zonation, diversity, physiology, and microbiology of multiple taxa and settings. Much of the emphasis will be benthic. We will also address the effects of climate change and human impacts in the deep sea.  The course will consist of 21 lectures of approximately 70 min with a brief discussion session following each. See attached lecture schedule.  Students are expected to read assigned book chapters and papers before each lecture, attend class and participate in the discussions.   Please plan to buy the books Deep-Sea Biology by Gage and Tyler and The Silent Deep by Tony Koslow). Journal articles will be available on electronic reserves, in some cases on the class website, and books will be on reserve in the library. 

When & Where:  Tuesday/Thursday 9:30-10:50, Vaughan 100

Course details - SIO 277-F-2009 Deep-Sea Bio.doc
Lecture Schedule (lectures posted below) -REVISED 11-3-09- SIO277_LectureSchedule_Fall09.doc
Proposal and Presentation - SIO277 Proposal and Pres.doc
Challenger Forward Assignment - Due Oct. 29 - ChallengerForwardAssignment.doc
Reading List (readings posted below) (.doc)

Lectures
September 24 - History of Deep Sea Biology
September 29 - Physical, Chemical and Geological Aspects of Deep Sea Environments
Pages 1 - 25
Pages  26 - 50
October 1 - Zonation and Biogeography
October 6 - Size Structure, Abundance and Tropic Composition

     October 8 Deep Sea Species Diversity (file cannot be uploaded - contact Penny if you want this ppt) October 13 - Reproduction, Life Histories, Larval Ecology & Recruitment
October 15 - Meso-/Bathpelagic and Seamount Ecosystems
  October 20 - Protozoa (see assigned readings below)
October 22 - Deep Sea Microbiology
October 27 - Animal Sediment Interactioons in the Deep Sea (cannot be uploaded- Contact Penny for this pdf)
October 29 - Benthic-Pelagic Couplin Deep-Sea Energetics Climate change 1 (Contact Penny for this pdf)
November 3 - OMZ, Deep Reefs and Acidification (OMZ pages 1-14 & 16 - 32) (OMZ Page 15)
November 5 - Hydrothermal Vents (Part 1 ) (Part 2 ) (Part 3 )
November 10 - Hydrothermal Vents - Riftia
  November 12 - Methane Seeps (Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3)
November 17 - Hadal Ecology
 November 19: Physiology

Readings
Levin and Dayton 2009.  Ecological theory and continental margins: where shallow meets deep
Smith et al 2008.  Abyssal food limitation, ecosystem structure and climate change
Anthropogenic impacts on the Deep Sea (chapter 13)
The deep-sea floor: an overview (chapter 2)
Carney, Robert S. 2005. Zonation of deep biota on continental margins
Glaser: The study of vision in deep sea fishes: from the HMS Challenger to the Present
Whitty: Building on a Skeletal Framework
Pasulka:  The deepest photosynthetic reef-coral species

 Zonation References (.doc)

Rex et al. 2005 (.pdf) A source-Sink Hypothesis for Abyssal Biodiversity
Rex et al. 2006 (pdf) Global Bathymetric patterns of standing stock and body size in the deep-sea benthos
Rex et al. 2005 Ecology  (.pdf) Large-Scale biogeographic Patterns in Marine Mollusks

Density, Biomass, Trophic - References
Reproduction, Life Histories, Dispersal - References
Diversity - References
Koslow-seamount References
Seep References 

Assigned readings - October 20
Possible roles for xenophyophores in Deep-Sea Carbon Cycling (levin001.pdf)
The Role of Benthic Forminifera in Deep-Sea food webs and Carbon Cycling (gooday001.pdf)
Levin 1991. American Zoology 31:886-900 (Levin_Zoo.pdf)
Nagata et al. 2009. (Nagata et al.paper.pdf) 
Dekas A.E., et al. 2009. Science 326, 422 (Dekas et al. pdf)
Fulweiler, R.W.  2009. Fantastic Fixers.  Science 326: 377-378 (Comment.pdf)

Student Cruse Information - 2009
Physical Ability to Work at Sea (pawas_new.pdf - Form)
Drugs, Alcohol & Sexual Harassment Policies (d_a_sh_form-1.pdf)
Deep Sea Species List (DSSpecies.pdf)

Smith, C.R. et al. 1993.  Age dependent mixing of deep sea sediments
Witte, U. et al. 2003.  Nature
Levin et al.  1997.  Journal of Marine Research
Woulds et al. 2009.  Deep-Sea Research 

Readings for Oct. 29th lecture on Benthic Pelagic Coupling and Climate change:
Gage, J.D. (2003) Food inputs, utilization, carbon flow and energetics. In Ecosystems of the World: The Deep Sea (Tyler, P.A. ed.), pp. 313-380. Elsevier
Ruhl, H.A. and Smith, K.L. (2004) Shifts in deep-sea community structure linked to climate and food supply. Science 305, 513–515.
Smith et al. 2008 TREE

Benthic-Pelagic Coupling Climate 09 References

Readings for Nov. 3 (OMZs and Biogenic Reefs)
Levin, L.A. 2003.    Oxygen Minimum Zone Benthos: Adaptation and Community Response to Hypoxia. Oceanography and Marine Biology: An Annual Review 41: 1-45
  This is long... you can read the intro parts then selection your favorite size organisms and read about them (meiofauna, macrofauna, megafauna...)
      Guinotte, J.M., J. Orr, S. Cairns, A. Friewald, L. Morgan, R. George. 2006. Will human-induced changes in seawater chemistry alter the distribution of deep-sea scleractinian corals? Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 4: 141-146.
Optional for people who like microbes....  Walsh et al. 2009.  Metagenome of a versatile chemolithoautotroph from expanding oceanic  dead zones. Science 326: 578- 582.

OMZ. Reef. Climate - References

Readings for Nov. 5 (Vent ecology and biogeography)
 F.J. Stewart, I. Newton and C. Cavanaugh 2005. Chemosynthetic endosymbioses: adaptations to oxic-anoxic interfaces. Trends in Microbiology. 13: 439-448.
   Tunnicliffe and Fowler. 1996. Influence of sea-flor spreading on the global hydrothermal vent fauna. Nature 379: 531-533.
  Van Dover et al. 2002. Evolution and Biogeography of Deep-Sea Vent and Seep Invertebrates. Science 295, 1253-1257
Tunicliffe. Reducing Environments of the Deep-sea Floor. Chapter 4: 81 - 110

November 10  - Hydrothermal Vent References

Readings for Nov 12 (Methane seeps): one or more of the following papers: 

Biodiversity of Cold Seep Ecosystems along the European Margins (Vanreusel.Seeps.Oceano.pdf)
Macro-Ecology of Gulf of Mexico Cold Seeps (Coredestal.2009.pdf)
Ecology of Cold Seep Sediments: Interactions of Fauna with Flow, Chemistry and Microbes (Levin OMBAR05.pdf)
Jamieson.  Hadal Trenches: The ecology of the deepest place on Earth
Blankenship.  Vertical zonation patterns of scavenging amphipods from the Hadal zone of the Tonga and Kermadec Trenches.

November 17 -  Trenches
Trench - References

Readings
  Seibel and Drazen. 2007. The rate of metabolism in marine animals.  Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 362 2061-2078
Braby et al. 2007.  Bathymetric and temporal variation among Osedax boneworm and associated megafauna on whale falls... Deep Sea Research Part 1
 Rouse et al. 2008. Acquisition of Dwarf Male "Harems" by Recently Settled Females of Osedax roseus... Biol. Bull. 214: 67-82
   Smith and Baco. 2003. Ecology of Wale Falls at the Deep-Sea Floor. Oceanography and Marine Biology 41: 311-354