The importance of hydrothermal venting to water-column secondary production in the northeast Pacific

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to show that seafloor hydrothermal venting in the open northeast Pacific Ocean has a marked impact on secondary biomass and production within the overlying water column. Specifically, we use net tows and concurrently measured acoustic backscatter data collected over six summers to examine the effects of hydrothermal venting from the Endeavour Segment of Juan de Fuca Ridge on macro-zooplankton biomass and production throughout the entire 2000m depth range. Previous research shows that ontogenetic diapausing migrators and their predators from the upper ocean aggregate above the neutrally buoyant plumes in summer and resume feeding on plume and bottom upwelled particles, resulting in increased zooplankton reproductive output to the upper ocean. Within the limitations of our sampling methodology, net tows reveal a statistically significant exponential decline in total water-column biomass with increasing lateral distance from the vent fields. The acoustic backscatter data show a similar decline, but only below 800m depth. Near-surface biomass was highly variable throughout the region, but values near vents consistently ranged higher than summer values found elsewhere in the offshore northeast Pacific. Water-column biomass was similar in magnitude above and below 800m depth throughout the region. Because epiplume biomass can be advected a considerable distance from vent fields, biomass enhancement of the water column from hydrothermal venting may extend considerable distances to the west and northwest of the vent sites, in the prevailing directions of the subsurface flow. Based on the extensive acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) data collected, and the strong correlation between zooplankton production derived from net sample biomass and acoustic backscatter intensity, we estimate that daily macro-zooplankton production in the upper 400m of the water column within 10km of the vent fields averages approximately 16% of photosynthetic primary production (the “Z ratio”), whereas the total water-column zooplankton production averages 26% of surface primary production. Local grazing-rate estimates, metabolic constraints and other open-ocean studies suggest that the Z ratio should be no higher than 5%, which it is at off-axis background sites in the study region. This finding indicates that nutrient sources other than upper-ocean primary production fuel both upper- and deep-ocean zooplankton biomass and growth near the Endeavour Ridge hydrothermal vents.