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Survival under conditions of variable food availability: Resource utilization and storage in the cold-water coral Lophelia pertusa

Cold-water coral (CWC) reefs are hotspots of biodiversity and productivity in the deep sea, but their distribution is limited by the availability of food, which undergoes complex local and temporal variability. We studied the resource utilization, metabolism, and tissue storage of CWC Lophelia pertu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Limnology and oceanography 2019-07, Vol.64 (4), p.1651-1671
Main Authors: Maier, Sandra R., Kutti, Tina, Bannister, Raymond John, van Breugel, Peter, van Rijswijk, Pieter, van Oevelen, Dick
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:Cold-water coral (CWC) reefs are hotspots of biodiversity and productivity in the deep sea, but their distribution is limited by the availability of food, which undergoes complex local and temporal variability. We studied the resource utilization, metabolism, and tissue storage of CWC Lophelia pertusa during an experimentally simulated 3-day food pulse, of 13C15N-enriched phytodetritus, followed by a 4-week food deprivation. Oxygen consumption (0.145 μmol O₂ [mmol organic carbon {OC}]−1 h−1), release of particulate organic matter (0.029 μmol particulate organic carbon [POC] [mmol OC]−1 h−1 and 0.005 μmol particulate organic nitrogen [mmol OC]−1 h−1), ammonium excretion (0.004 μmol NH₄⁺ [mmol OC]−1 h−1), tissue C and N content, and fatty acid (FA) and amino acid composition did not change significantly during the experiment. Metabolization of the labeled phytodetritus, however, underwent distinct temporal dynamics. Initially, L. pertusa preferentially used phytodetritus-derived C for respiration (2.2 ± 0.36 nmol C [mmol OC]−1 h−1) and mucus production (0.94 ± 0.52 nmol C [mmol OC]−1 h−1), but those tracer fluxes declined exponentially to
ISSN:0024-3590
1939-5590
DOI:10.1002/lno.11142