Fuhrman, J. K., K. McCallum, and A. A. Davis, Phylogenetic
diversity of subsurface marine microbial communities from the
Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, Appl. Environ. Microbiol., 59,
1294-1302, 1993.
C evidence,
Deep-Sea Res., 32, 201-214, 1985.
Figure 1: The flesh of falling whale carcasses provide food for deep-sea
organisms and the skeletons support a chemoautotrophic-based
food chain similar to that in hydrothermal vent and seep areas
[ Smith et al., 1989]. Thus, whale skeletons may be critical
stepping stones for hydrothermal-vent-type communities (depicted
on the left). Whale carcasses were released from whaling vessels
in densities and geographic patterns that were likely distinctly
different from natural whale falls [ Butman et al., 1995].
In fact,
Figure 1. continued:
after the early 1900s, the supply of human-killed whales to
the seafloor dropped dramatically because almost the entire
whale, including the skeleton, was used for various products
(depicted on the right). Overall, before and after the 1900s,
the number of whales in the ocean was reduced dramatically, thus
potentially diminishing (and in some cases stopping) the supply
of whale carcass stepping stones for hydrothermal vent and other
chemoautotrophic-based communities in the deep sea.
Table 1. Underdescribed Biodiversity in Selected Shallow-Water
Coastal Systems
*[5mm]
.5mm
Estimate of the number of undescribed species of a given taxon
found in samples taken at the site and habitat indicated. Sampling
effort and number of samples varied among studies.
Personal communication to J. T. Carlton in 1994 unless
indicated otherwise.
Table 1. Underdescribed Biodiversity in Selected Shallow-Water
Coastal Systems
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Region Taxon Number of Undescribed Species Source
out of Total Collected
in the Taxon
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Caribbean Nematodes 89 of 90 R. Warwick (shallow subtidal, one site)
New Guinea Snails, sea slugs 310 of 564 T. Gosliner (one lagoon)
Phillipines Snails, sea slugs 135 of 320 T. Gosliner (one island, multiple sites)
California Polychaete worms >50 in Family Sylidae J. Blake (intertidal zone)
Georges Bank Polychaete worms 124 of 372 J. Blake (shallow shelf, multiple sites)
Hawaii Polychaete worms 112 of 158 Dutch(1988) (6 liters of coral reef sediment, one island)
Georges Bank Oligochaete worms 18 of 32 J. Blake
(shallow shelf,
multiple sites)
Great Barrier Polyclad flatworms 123 of 134 Newman and Reef (two islands) Cannon (1994)
New Guinea Polyclad flatworms 54 of 64 L. Newman and (one lagoon) L. Cannon
Gulf of Harpacticoid 19-27 of 29 D. Thistle Mexico copepods (shelf site)
Estimate of the number of undescribed species of a given
taxon found in samples taken at the site and habitat indicated.
Sampling effort and number of samples varied among studies.
Personal communication to J. T. Carlton in 1994 unless
indicated otherwise.