Distribution of epibenthic megafauna and lebensspuren on two central North Pacific seamounts

Abstract

The abundance, composition and spatial distribution of megafaunal communities and lebensspuren assemblages at three sites on two deep seamounts in the central North Pacific were surveyed photographically using still cameras mounted on the research submersible Alvin. Photographic transects were made on the summit cap (∼1500 m depth) and summit perimeter (∼ 1800 m depth) of Horizon Guyot and on the summit cap (∼3100 m depth) of Magellan Rise. The summit caps of both seamounts were covered with foraminiferal sand, while the summit perimeter of Horizon Guyot was characterized by numerous rock outcroppings (basalt and chert encrusted with ferromanganese oxides) on which was situated a speciose assemblage of suspension-feeding organisms. The most abundant megafauna at all three sites were large, sediment-agglutinating protists belonging to the class Xenophyophorea. Among the three sites, the Horizon Guyot summit cap supported the highest densities of fishes and lebensspuren and the fewest echinoderms, while the Magellan Rise summit cap was populated by a diverse community of deposit-feeding echinoderms. Megafaunal abundances on Horizon Guyot were lower than those at equivalent depths on the western North Atlantic continental slope, while those on Magellan Rise were higher. The faunal differences observed between the two seamounts were attributed primarily to differences in hydrodynamic conditions, substrate availability and nutrient availability. Most of the lebensspuren on these seamounts appeared to be patchily distributed on spatial scales of 10–1000 m, while xenophyophore distributions were predominantly random on the same spatial scales. Biogeographically the species identified exhibited predominantly widespread to cosmopolitan distributions with Indo-West Pacific faunal affinities, typical of other seamounts in the same depth range and biogeographic province.