Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Albuquerque 2001

SS35 Biological and Ecological Responses to Low Oxygen in Constant and Fluctuating Environments (Spatial and Temporal Connections)

Date: Thursday, February 15, 2001, Time: 11:15:00 AM

Location: La Cienega

Sell, A, F, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, USA, asell@whoi.edu

LIFE IN THE EXTREME ENVIRONMENT AT A HYDROTHERMAL VENT: HAEMOGLOBIN IN A DEEP-SEA COPEPOD

I discovered and quantified the respiratory pigment haemo-globin (Hb) in a deep-sea copepod. Specimens of the siphono-s-tomatoid Scotoecetes introrsus Humes, 1987 were collected during submersible dives at 2500 m depth near a hydrothermal vent at the East Pacific Rise, 9 degree N. Average Hb content in the copepod’s haemolymph was 4.3 ug per female and 1.8 ug per male individual. Weight-specific concentrations of Hb were identical for females and males (0.25 +/- 0.04 and 0.26 +/- 0.02 ug per ug dry weight, respectively). These Hb concentrations are higher than those found in other small crustaceans. Activity of the Electron Transport System (ETS) indicated that respiration rates of S. introrsus (13.7 +/- 7.7 ul O2 mg dry wt-1 h-1) were similar to those of the shallow-water copepod Acartia tonsa (9.1 +/- 1.3 ul O2 mg dry wt-1 h-1). It is con-cluded that the possession of highly concentrated Hb allows S. introrsus to colonize a geologically young, thermally active site like the vicinity of a hydrothermal vent, despite the prevailing oxygen depletion.

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Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Albuquerque 2001

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