![]() ![]() You will study pattern and process in energy transfer through seafloor communities by constructing food webs using novel stable isotope biomarker approaches and examining body-size spectra in deep-seafloor communities at the Porcupine Abyssal Plain sustained observatory (PAP-SO, depth 4850 m) in the NE Atlantic. This project aims to bring together empirical measurements, theory and modelling to better understand energy flow and ecosystem function in deep-seafloor communities. Therefore, changes in deep-seafloor communities will have direct and indirect impacts on biologically controlled processes, ecosystem functioning, biogeochemical cycling and carbon burial. A small fraction of that POC is not remineralised by deep-seafloor communities and is sequestered by seafloor burial, an important process over geological timescales. Deep-seafloor communities play an important role in remineralising POC to nutrients and dissolved inorganic carbon, over time periods of days to months. Modelling predicts that a reduction in POC flux will lead to a substantial reduction in biomass at the deep seafloor (Yool et al. This food supply is likely to be impacted by climate change, which is predicted to impact surface ocean primary production leading to a reduction in the POC flux (Yool et al. Recent work at two abyssal observatories has demonstrated that deep-seafloor communities are sensitive to changes in this flux (Smith et al. A small fraction (<5%) of the POC fixed in the surface ocean reaches the seafloor. Deep-seafloor communities are sustained by the flux of particulate organic carbon, which originates from primary producers in the euphotic zone. The overall aim of this project is to determine how body size controls energy flow through deep-sea food webs using biomarkers and modelling approaches.ĭeep-sea habitats at water depths over 2000 m cover ~60% of the Earth’s surface and are the largest and least explored environment on the planet (Smith et al.
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