10.1594/PANGAEA.737525
Haas, Antonie
Antonie
Haas
0000-0002-3771-4125
Little, Crispin T S
Crispin T S
Little
0000-0002-1917-4460
Sahling, Heiko
Heiko
Sahling
0000-0002-1022-9816
Bohrmann, Gerhard
Gerhard
Bohrmann
0000-0001-9976-4948
Himmler, Tobias
Tobias
Himmler
0000-0001-8847-0266
Peckmann, Jörn
Jörn
Peckmann
0000-0002-8572-0060
(Table 1) List of studied samples with vestimentiferan tubes
PANGAEA
2010
Event label
Sample code/label
Location type
Description
Television-Grab
Gravity corer
M56/2
Meteor (1986)
Center for Marine Environmental Sciences (MARUM)
2002-12-10T11:45:00/2002-12-17T18:02:00
en
Supplementary Dataset
10.1016/j.dsr.2008.08.007
57 data points
text/tab-separated-values
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported
Vestimentiferan tube worms are prominent members of modern methane seep communities and are totally reliant as adults on symbiotic sulphide-oxidizing bacteria for their nutrition. The sulphide is produced in the sediment by a biochemical reaction called the anaerobic oxidation of methane (AOM). A well-studied species from the Gulf of Mexico shows that seep vestimentiferans 'mine' sulphide from the sediment using root-like, thin walled, permeable posterior tube extensions, which can also be used to pump sulphate and possibly hydrogen ions from the soft tissue back into the sediment to increase the local rate of AOM. The 'root-balls' of exhumed seep vestimentiferans are intimately associated with carbonate nodules, which are a result of AOM. We have studied vestimentiferan specimens and associated carbonates from seeps at the Kouilou pockmark field on the Congo deep-sea fan and find that some of the posterior 'root' tubes of living specimens are enclosed with carbonate indurated sediment and other, empty examples are partially or completely replaced by the carbonate mineral aragonite. This replacement occurs from the outside of the tube wall inwards and leaves fine-scale relict textures of the original organic tube wall. The process of mineralization is unknown, but is likely a result of post-mortem microbial decay of the tube wall proteins by microorganisms or the precipitation from locally high flux of AOM derived carbonate ions. The aragonite-replaced tubes from the Kouilou pockmarks show similar features to carbonate tubes in ancient seep deposits and make it more likely that many of these fossil tubes are those of vestimentiferans. These observations have implications for the supposed origination of this group, based on molecular divergence estimates.
Supplement to: Haas, Antonie; Little, Crispin T S; Sahling, Heiko; Bohrmann, Gerhard; Himmler, Tobias; Peckmann, Jörn (2009): Mineralization of vestimentiferan tubes at methane seeps on the Congo deep-sea fan. Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers, 56(2), 283-293
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Congo Fan