Project: Collaborative research: Quantifying the biological, chemical, and physical linkages between chemosynthetic communities and the surrounding deep sea

Acronym/Short Name:Costa Rica Seeps
Project Duration:2016-10 - 2020-09
Geolocation:Costa Rica Pacific Margin

Description

NSF abstract:
If life were to disappear from the deep sea, would we notice? We only have a cursory understanding of this vast region and the connectivity among its communities and the rest of the oceans, and yet the ecosystems of the deep sea have been implicated in the larger function of the global marine ecosystems. We now rely on the deep ocean for food, energy, novel drugs and materials, and for its role in the global cycling of carbon, as well as for supporting services such as habitat creation, nutrient replenishment for shallow waters, and the maintenance of biodiversity. Cold seeps, active areas of the seafloor where methane and other chemicals are released, are key features along the continental margins worldwide. To characterize how methane seep communities interact with the surrounding ecosystems and vice versa, we will study methane seeps off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica in 2017 and 2018. It is the sphere of influence around the seep, both along the seafloor and up into the water column, that we seek to better understand. We will map the structure and the chemistry surrounding these habitats using a novel 3-dimensional framework, combining typical transects with vertical characterizations of the water column just above the seafloor. This will include measurements of methane flux into the water column and changes in the overlying carbonate chemistry and oxygen levels that are critical to our understanding of the effect of warming, oxygen loss and ocean acidification in this region. Within this framework, we will collect seep organisms in sediments and on rocks (including all sizes from microbes to large animals), and transplant some of these from within the area of seep influence to the background deep sea, and vice-versa. Together, these studies will help us to measure the size of the seep sphere of influence, and also demonstrate the role of these seeps within the deep sea and the greater, global, marine ecosystem. We will share this information with a group of teachers during a series of workshops in the San Diego area, at an exhibit at the Birch Aquarium, and through the work of an artist who has worked extensively with marine organisms in extreme environments.

Chemosynthetic ecosystems are inextricably linked to the broader world-ocean biome and global biogeochemical cycles in ways that we are just beginning to understand. This research will identify the form, extent, and nature of the physical, chemical, and biological linkages between methane seeps and the surrounding deep-sea ecosystem. The proposed research builds critical understanding of the structural and functional processes that underpin the ecosystem services provided by chemosynthetic ecosystems. We target a critical continental margin, Costa Rica, where methane fates and dynamics loom large and play out in an setting that reflects many oceanographic stressors. We will use quantitative sampling and manipulative studies within a 3-dimensional oceanographic framework. We will ask what are the shapes of the diversity and density functions for organisms of different size classes and trophic position over the transition from the seep habitat through the ecotone to the background deep sea? Further, we will ask how do depth, dissolved oxygen concentrations, pH and carbonate ion availability, relative rates of fluid flux, and substrate (biogenic, authigenic carbonate, sediments) alter these linkages and interactions with the surrounding deep sea? Evidence for distinct transitional communities and biotic patterns in density and alpha and beta diversity will be quantified and placed in a global biogeographic context. All of these investigations will occur across biological size spectra: for microorganisms (archaea, bacteria, microeukaryotes), the macrofauna, and the megafauna that form biogenic habitats. Our research results will be interpreted in the context of potential effects of global ocean change in the equatorial Pacific to determine how the linkages with the surrounding deep sea will be altered as anthropogenic impacts proceed in the future. 

Related publications:
Levin, L.A., V.J. Orphan, G.W. Rouse, W. Ussler, A. E. Rathburn, G. S. Cook, S. Goffredi, E. Perez, A. Waren, B. Grupe, G. Chadwick, B. Strickrott. (2012). A hydrothermal seep on the Costa Rica margin: Middle ground in a continuum of reducing ecosystems. Proc. Royal Soc. B. 279: 2580-88 doi: 10.1098/rspb.2012.0205

Sahling, H., Masson, D. G., Ranero, C. R., Hühnerbach, V., Weinrebe, W., Klaucke, I., & Suess, E. (2008). Fluid seepage at the continental margin offshore Costa Rica and southern Nicaragua. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems 9: doi: 10.1029/2008GC001978


DatasetLatest Version DateCurrent State
Oxygen data from 8 Wire Flyer deployments conducted on R/V Atlantis cruise AT42-03 in the Costa Rica Margin from October to November 20182022-09-01Data not available
4Hz data from 8 Wire Flyer deployments conducted on R/V Atlantis cruise AT42-03 in the Costa Rica Margin from October to November 20182022-08-31Data not available
CTD data from 8 Wire Flyer deployments conducted on R/V Atlantis cruise AT42-03 in the Costa Rica Margin from October to November 20182022-08-26Data not available
ECOpuck Fluorometer data from 8 Wire Flyer deployments conducted on R/V Atlantis cruise AT42-03 in the Costa Rica Margin from October to November 20182022-08-26Data not available
GPS data from 8 Wire Flyer deployments conducted on R/V Atlantis cruise AT42-03 in the Costa Rica Margin from October to November 20182022-08-23Data not available
Inventory of push cores taken on Alvin dives on RV/Atlantis cruise AT37-13 and AT42-03 at methane seeps off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica (Costa Rica Seeps project)2021-06-10Final no updates expected
Megafaunal presence recorded from AUV Sentry phototransects conducted at sites across the Costa Rica margin from R/V Atlantis cruises AT37-13, AT42-03 in 2017 and 2018 2021-05-03Final no updates expected
Matrix of taxon by sample for sediment push cores collected by HOV Alvin during R/V Atlantis cruise AT37-13 and AT42-03 in the Pacific margin of Costa Rica in 2017 and 20182021-03-17Final no updates expected
Matrix of taxon by sample for hard substrates collected by HOV Alvin during R/V Atlantis cruise AT37-13 and AT42-03 in the Pacific margin of Costa Rica in 2017 and 2018. 2021-03-16Final no updates expected
Macrofaunal diversity and abundance characteristics of sediment push cores collected by HOV Alvin during R/V Atlantis cruise AT37-13 and AT42-03 in the Pacific margin of Costa Rica in 2017 and 20182021-02-25Final no updates expected
Sampling locations of hard substrates and push cores collected during R/V Atlantis cruise AT37-13 and AT42-03 in the Pacific Ocean off Costa Rica in 2017 and 2018.2021-02-19Final no updates expected
Averages and standard deviation across species for all macrofauna found on each carbonate rock collected during R/V Atlantis cruise AT37-13 in the Pacific margin of Costa Rica from May to June 20172021-02-17Final no updates expected
Catalog numbers, GenBank accession numbers, and key details for specimens collected during cruises AT37-13 (2017), AT42-03 (2018), and FK190106 (2019) and vouchered in the Scripps Institution of Oceanography Benthic Invertebrate Collection2021-01-26Final no updates expected
[DEPRECATED] Locations of sediment push cores collected during R/V Atlantis cruise AT37-13 in the Pacific Ocean off Costa Rica from May to June 20172020-12-16Deprecated
[DEPRECATED] Locations of hard substrata collected during R/V Atlantis cruise AT37-13 in the Pacific Ocean off Costa Rica from May to June 20172020-12-16Deprecated
Sampling information from community megafauna collected from different seep sites off the Costa Rica margin. Collections taken aboard R/V Atlantis in 2017 and 2018 using DSV Alvin. The 2019 collections were made aboard R/V Falkor, using the ROV Subastian.2020-07-24Final no updates expected
Current speed and direction determined by tilt meters deployed at Costa Rica Seeps during R/V Atlantis cruises AT37-13 and AT42-03 during 2017 and 20182020-06-17Data not available
Water temperature determined by tilt meters deployed at Costa Rica Seeps during R/V Atlantis cruises AT37-13 and AT42-03 during 2017 and 20182020-06-17Data not available
Tubeworms and associated organisms sampling information collected in the Pacific margin of Costa Rica. The collections are taken aboard R/V Atlantis in 2017 and 2018 using DSV Alvin. The 2019 collections were made aboard R/V Falkor using the ROV Subastian2020-03-19Final no updates expected
Mussels and associated organisms sampling information collected in the Pacific margin of Costa Rica.The collections were made aboard R/V Atlantis in 2017 and 2018 using DSV Alvin. The 2019 collections were made aboard R/V Falkor, using the ROV Subastian2020-03-06Final no updates expected
[DEPRECATED] Averages and standard deviation of stable isotopes (d13C and d15N) across species for all macrofauna found on each substrate (carbonate rocks, woods, and bones) of the colonization experiment held in Mound 122018-10-08Deprecated
Carbonate chemistry sample inventory from R/V Atlantis AT37-13 at methane seeps in the Pacific Ocean off Costa Rica from May to June 2017 (Costa Rica Seeps project)2017-09-25Preliminary and in progress
Niskin bottle sample inventory from Alvin dives and shipboard CTD's on R/V Atlantis AT37-13 in the Pacific margin of Costa Rica from May to June 2017 (Costa Rica Seeps project)2017-09-25Preliminary and in progress
Preliminary log of samples collected during Alvin dives from R/V Atlantis cruise AT37-13 in the Costa Rica margin2017-09-12Preliminary and in progress

People

Lead Principal Investigator: Erik E. Cordes
Temple University (Temple)

Principal Investigator: Lisa A. Levin
University of California-San Diego Scripps (UCSD-SIO)

Principal Investigator: Victoria J. Orphan
California Institute of Technology (Caltech)

Principal Investigator: Christopher Neil Roman
University of Rhode Island (URI)

Co-Principal Investigator: Gregory Rouse
University of California-San Diego Scripps (UCSD-SIO)

Contact: Erik E. Cordes
Temple University (Temple)

Contact: Lisa A. Levin
University of California-San Diego Scripps (UCSD-SIO)

Contact: Victoria J. Orphan
California Institute of Technology (Caltech)

Contact: Christopher Neil Roman
University of Rhode Island (URI-GSO)


Data Management Plan

DMP_Cordes_OCE-1635219.pdf (90.68 KB)
02/09/2025