Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Environmental grain and polychaete species' diversity in a bathyal benthic community

  • Published:
Marine Biology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Patterns of polychaete species' dispersion in the San Diego Trough, Southern California Continental Borderland, North Pacific Ocean, at a depth of 1230 m are analyzed. Samples consist of 4 replicate 0.25-m2 box cores, each partitioned into twenty-five 0.01-m2 subcores, and of 1 unpartitioned core. The sampler is biased but, when this bias is taken into account, few species show strong aggregation either between or within cores. If all species are considered together as replicates, intraspecific aggregation is detected between cores, but uniform dispersion dominates within cores. Patchiness or habitat partitioning on the assayed scales can thus account for little of the extremely high species' diversity observed. Apparently due to an environmental structure having a “grain” smaller than 0.01-m2, the diversity of species assumed to be sedentary is higher than the diversity of species assumed to be mobile. One evidence of such structure is a negative covariance between paraonid abundance and density of “mudballs” constructed by a cirratulid. Consideration of these results suggests that either grain specialization or simultaneous, biogenic disequilibrium or both act on spatial scales smaller than 0.01-m2 to maintain high polychaete species' diversity in the San Diego Trough.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Literature Cited

  • Barham, E.G., N.J. Ayer, Jr. and R.E. Boyce: Macrobenthos of the San Diego Trough: photographic census and observations from the bathyscaph, Trieste. Deep-Sea Res. 14, 773–784 (1967)

    Google Scholar 

  • Bray, J.R. and J.T. Curtis: An ordination of the upland forest communities of southern Wisconsin. Ecol. Monogr. 27, 325–349 (1957)

    Google Scholar 

  • Colwell, R.K.: Competition and coexistence in a simple tropical community. Am. Nat. 107, 737–760 (1973)

    Google Scholar 

  • Connell, J.H.: Territorial behavior and dispersion in some marine invertebrates. Researches Popul. Ecol. Kyoto Univ. 5, 87–101 (1963)

    Google Scholar 

  • Connell, J.H.: On the role of natural enemies in preventing competitive exclusion in some marine animals and in forest trees. In: Dynamics of populations, pp 298–312. Ed. by P.J. den Boer and G.R. Gradwell. Proceedings of the Advanced Study Institute on Dynamics and Numbers of Populations (Oosterbeek, Netherlands, 1970) 1972

  • Day, J.H.: A monograph on the Polychaeta of South Africa, 878 pp. London: Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History) 1967

    Google Scholar 

  • Dayton, P.K. and R.R. Hessler: Role of biological disturbance in maintaining diversity in the deep sea. Deep-Sea Res. 19, 199–208 (1972)

    Google Scholar 

  • Diamond, J.M.: Distributional ecology of New Guinea birds. Science, N.Y. 179, 759–769 (1973)

    Google Scholar 

  • Dixon, W.J. and F.J. Massey, Jr.: Introduction to statistical analysis (2nd ed.), 488 pp. New York, N.Y.: McGraw-Hill 1957

    Google Scholar 

  • Emery, K.O.: The sea off Southern California, 366 pp. New York, N.Y.: John Wiley & Sons 1960

    Google Scholar 

  • — and J. Hülsemann: Submarine canyons of Southern California. I. Topography, water, and sediments, Allan Hancock Pacif. Exped. 27, 1–80 (1963)

    Google Scholar 

  • Gage, J. and A.D. Geekie: Community structure of the benthos in Scottish sea-lochs. II. Spatial pattern. Mar. Biol. 19, 41–53 (1973)

    Google Scholar 

  • Grassle, J.F. and H.L. Sanders: Life histories and the role of disturbance. Deep-Sea Res. 20, 643–659 (1973)

    Google Scholar 

  • Greig-Smith, P.: Pattern in plant communities. J. Ecol. 49, 695–702 (1960)

    Google Scholar 

  • Hairston, N.G.: Ecology, selection and systematics. Breviora 414, 1–21 (1973)

    Google Scholar 

  • Hamilton, E.L.: Sediment sound velocity measurements made in situ from the bathyscaph Trieste. J. geophys. Res. 68, 5991–5998 (1963)

    Google Scholar 

  • Hartman, O.: Deep-water benthic polychaetous annelids off New England to Bermuda and other North Atlantic areas. Occ. Pap. Allan Hancock Fdn 28, 1–378 (1965)

    Google Scholar 

  • — and K. Fauchald: Deep-water benthic polychaetous annelids off New England to Bermuda and other North Atlantic areas. Part II. Allan Hancock Monogr. mar. Biol. 6, 1–327 (1971)

    Google Scholar 

  • Hessler, R.R. and P.A. Jumars: Abyssal community analysis from replicate box cores in the central North Pacific. Deep-Sea Res. 21, 185–209 (1974)

    Google Scholar 

  • — and H.L. Sanders: Faunal diversity in the deep sea. Deep-Sea Res. 14, 65–78 (1967)

    Google Scholar 

  • Holme, N.A.: Population dispersion in Tellina tenuis da Costa. J. mar. biol. Ass. U.K. 29, 267–280 (1950)

    Google Scholar 

  • Hurlbert, S.N.: The nonconcept of species diversity: a critique and alternative parameters. Ecology 52, 577–586 (1971)

    Google Scholar 

  • Hutchinson, G.E.: The concept of pattern in ecology. Proc. Acad. nat. Sci. Philad. 105, 1–12 (1953)

    Google Scholar 

  • —: The paradox of the plankton. Am. Nat. 105, 137–146 (1961)

    Google Scholar 

  • Jaccard, P.: The distribution of flora of the alpine zone. New Phytol. 11, 37–50 (1912)

    Google Scholar 

  • Jumars, P.A.: Methods for measurement of community structure in deep-sea macrobenthos. Mar. Biol. 30, 245–252 (1975)

    Google Scholar 

  • LaFond, E.C.: Movements of benthonic organisms and bottom currents as measured from the bathyscaph Trieste. In: Deep-sea photography, pp 295–302. Ed. by J.B. Hersey. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press 1967

    Google Scholar 

  • Lloyd, M.: Mean crowding. J. Anim. Ecol. 36, 1–30 (1967)

    Google Scholar 

  • MacArthur, R.H.: The theory of the niche. In: Population biology and evolution, pp 159–176. Ed. by R.C. Lewontin. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press 1968

    Google Scholar 

  • —: Patterns of communities in the tropics. Biol. J. Linn. Soc. 1, 19–30 (1969)

    Google Scholar 

  • Moore, D.G.: Reflection profiling studies of the California continental borderland: structure and Quaternary turbidite basins. Spec. Pap. geol. Soc. Am. 107, 1–142 (1969)

    Google Scholar 

  • Papentin, F.: A Darwinian evolutionary system. III. Experiments on the evolution of feeding patterns. J. theor. Biol. 39, 431–445 (1973)

    Google Scholar 

  • Preston, F.W.: The canonical distribution of commonness and rarity. Ecology 43, 185–215, 410–432 (1962)

    Google Scholar 

  • Price, P.W.: Strategies for egg production. Evolution, N.Y. 28, 76–84 (1974)

    Google Scholar 

  • Reddingius, J. and P.J. den Boer: Simulation experiments illustrating stabilization of animal numbers by spreading of risk. Oecologia (Berl.) 5, 240–284 (1970)

    Google Scholar 

  • Reys, J.P.: Analyses statistiques de la microdistribution des especes benthiques de la region de Marseille. Tethys 3, 381–403 (1971)

    Google Scholar 

  • Richerson, P., R. Armstrong and C.R. Goldman: Contemporaneous disequilibrium, a new hypothesis to explain the “paradox of the plankton.” Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 67, 1710–1714 (1970)

    Google Scholar 

  • Rokop, F.J.: Reproductive patterns in the deep-sea benthos. Science, N.Y. 186, 743–745 (1974)

    Google Scholar 

  • Sanders, H.L.: Marine benthic diversity: a comparative study. Am. Nat. 102, 243–282 (1968)

    Google Scholar 

  • — and R.R. Hessler: Ecology of the deep-sea benthos. Science, N.Y. 163, 1419–1424 (1969)

    Google Scholar 

  • Schoener, T.W.: Resource partitioning in ecological communities. Science, N.Y. 185, 27–39 (1974)

    Google Scholar 

  • Selander, R.K and D.W. Kaufman: Genic variability and strategies of adaptation in animals. Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 70, 1875–1877 (1973)

    Google Scholar 

  • Shepard, F.P. and G. Einsele: Sedimentation in the San Diego Trough and contributing submarine canyons. Sedimentology 1, 81–133 (1962)

    Google Scholar 

  • Sokal, R.R. and F.J. Rohlf: Biometry, 776 pp. San Francisco, California: Freeman 1969

    Google Scholar 

  • Tate, M.W. and R.C. Clelland: Nonparametric and shortcut statistics, 171 pp. Danville, Illinois: Interstate 1957

    Google Scholar 

  • Thiel, H. und R.R. Hessler: Ferngesteuertes Unterwasserfahrzeug erforscht Tiefseeboden. Umschau 74, 451–453 (1974)

    Google Scholar 

  • Whittaker, R.H.: Dominance and diversity in land plant communities. Science, N.Y. 147, 250–260 (1965)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Allan Hancock Foundation, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA

    P. A. Jumars

  2. Department of Oceanography, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA

    P. A. Jumars

Authors
  1. P. A. Jumars
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Additional information

Communicated by O. Kinne, Hamburg

This paper is largely derived from a portion of a dissertation submitted to Scripps Institution of Oceanography of the University of California at San Diego in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Ph.D. degree.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Jumars, P.A. Environmental grain and polychaete species' diversity in a bathyal benthic community. Marine Biology 30, 253–266 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00390748

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00390748

Keywords

Search

Navigation