In:
Marine Ecology, Wiley, Vol. 36, No. 2 ( 2015-06), p. 246-257
Abstract:
Haplognathia ruberrima is a cosmopolitan gnathostomulid species found in sulfur bacterial mats in mangroves in Guadeloupe (French West Indies). Haplognathia ruberrima presents a δ 13 C value lower than all measured meiofaunal grazers and lower than the available measured food sources of this environment. This low δ 13 C value can not be due to specific ingestion of 13 C‐depleted methanogenic bacteria because abundances of those bacteria are reduced in surficial and deep sediments as revealed by δ 13 C of bacterial fatty acid. According to scanning electron microscope observations, no bacterial ectosymbionts were observed at the surface of the gnathostomulids, and transmission electron microscope views revealed the absence of bacterial endosymbionts. Energy‐dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy analysis detected low levels of sulfur (0.32%±0.8) in biological tissues of H. ruberrima , confirming the absence of thioautotrophic bacterial symbionts in these animals. Consequently, the low δ 13 C value of H. ruberrima can not be due to the presence of sulfur‐oxidizing symbionts but more probably to the selective and exclusive consumption of free‐living, sulfur‐oxidizing bacteria.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
0173-9565
,
1439-0485
DOI:
10.1111/maec.2015.36.issue-2
Language:
English
Publisher:
Wiley
Publication Date:
2015
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2020745-1
detail.hit.zdb_id:
225578-9
SSG:
12