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The Mediterranean Sea pp 69–83Cite as

Marine Chemosynthesis in the Mediterranean Sea

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Abstract

The Mediterranean Sea contains a vast spectrum of chemosynthetic habitats from shallow marine to bathyal depths. These habitats (hydrothermal vents, cold seeps, reducing sediment) are home to bacteria and archaea acting as primary producers using the energy obtained by oxidizing reducing compounds in fluids (e.g., H2S and hydrocarbons such as CH4) to synthesize organic matter. Such sites may make a large microbial biomass available to consumers and promote the development of complex symbiotic relationships between prokaryotes and hosting eukaryotes. Shallow water (<200 m) chemosynthetic niches are pervasive in the Mediterranean where reduced sediment are present (lagoons, seagrass beds, prodeltaic settings etc.) being exploited primarily by sulphur-oxidizing bacteria, some of which are symbiotic with metazoans. Particular cases of shallow chemosynthetic habitats are hydrothermal vents, submarine caves with sulphur springs, cold seeps including active pockmarks and reducing sediments in areas of high organic deposition. Deep-water chemosynthetic habitats (>200 m) with also metazoans with chemoautotrophic symbionts are present at various sites in the Mediterranean, encompassing both cold seeps and hydrothermal vents. Cold seeps are diffuse and geologically diverse, and comprise mud volcanoes, brine pools and active pockmark fields, whose reducing environments are often exploited by endemic chemosymbiotic metazoans, including bivalves and siboglinid polychaetes. Such environments are clustered in the Eastern Mediterranean (Nile Deep Sea Fan, Anaximander mud volcano field, Olimpi mud volcano field, Eratosthenes Seamount, Calabrian Arc, Marmara deep fault systems) but equally occur in the Strait of Sicily, Adriatic, Tyrrhenian and Alboran Seas. Deep hyperhaline anoxic basins occur in the Eastern Mediterranean and even host metazoans that live in anoxic conditions. Deep-water hydrothermal vents characterized by microbial communities and metazoans (siboglinid polychaetes) are documented so far only from some Tyrrhenian seamounts (Marsili, Palinuro) and Aegean submerged volcanic craters (Santorini, Kolumbo). The geo-biological relevance of such complex habitats often situated in the high seas, calls for an international effort towards the implementation of proper protection and sustainable management.

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Acknowledgments

This paper is dedicated to the memory of Michael Ivanov, a gentle man, a keen scientist and a friend who immensely contributed to the appreciation of deep-water chemosynthetic situations in the Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean, and Black seas. This article used images provided by the E/V Nautilus Exploration Program, Expeditions NA015, NA010, NA023. Katherine Croff Bell (Chief Scientist, E/V Nautilus Exploration Program, Ocean Science and Exploration Center, Narraganset) and Larry Mayer (University of New Hampshire, Durham) generously gave access to data and images from their explorations on deep sea chemosynthetic habitats in the Mediterranean Sea. Carlo Nike Bianchi kindly supplied underwater pictures from shallow water hydrothermal vents and caves with sulphur springs. Captains, Officers, Crew and Scientific Staff of cruises R/V Urania Arcadia, Medcor and Decors are thanked for their cooperation. Lorenzo Angeletti (Ismar-CNR, Bologna) helped with figure preparation. Thanks are due to Marina Cunha, Katherine Croff Bell, Bella Galil, Michael Marani, Catherine Pierre and Ann Vanreusel for sharing views and useful information on aspects of deep sea chemosynthetic habitats in the Mediterranean. Paul Dando (Maine Biological Association of the UK, Plymouth), Katherine Croff Bell (Ocean Science and Exploration Center, Narraganset), Stefano Aliani (Ismar-CNR, La Spezia), Carlo Nike Bianchi (DiSTAV University of Genova, Genova), Roberto Danovaro (Polytechnic University of Marche, Ancona), Wolfang-Christian Dullo (Geomar, Kiel), Gregor Eberli (Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science, Miami), Stéphane Hourdez (Station Biologique, Roscoff), Steffen Kiel (Georg-August University, Göttingen), Giuliana Panieri (Ismar-CNR, Bologna), and Antonio Pusceddu (Polytechnic University of Marche, Ancona) kindly revised the ms providing many constructive suggestions. This article is a contribution to the EU Hermione (contract n° 226354) and Coconet (contract n° 287844) programmes, to the PRIN 2009 project “Condotti carbonatici legati all’espulsione di fluidi ricchi in idrocarburi (Carbonate conduits linked to hydrocarbons enriched seepages)”, and to the RITMARE project. ISMAR-CNR Bologna scientific contribution n. 1763.

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    Marco Taviani

  2. Biology Department, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 266 Woods Hole Road, Woods Hole, MA, 02543, USA

    Marco Taviani

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    Zvy Dubinsky

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Taviani, M. (2014). Marine Chemosynthesis in the Mediterranean Sea. In: Goffredo, S., Dubinsky, Z. (eds) The Mediterranean Sea. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6704-1_5

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