Are shallow-water shrimps proxies for hydrothermal-vent shrimps to assess the impact of deep-sea mining?

Polymetallic seafloor massive sulphide deposits are potential targets for deep-sea mining, but high concentrations of metals (including copper - Cu) may be released during exploitation activities, potentially inducing harmful impact. To determine whether shallow-water shrimp are suitable ecotoxicological proxies for deep-sea hydrothermal vent shrimp the effects of waterborne Cu exposure (3 and 10 days at 0.4 and 4 µM concentrations) in Palaemon elegans, Palaemon serratus, and Palaemon varians were compared with Mirocaris fortunata. Accumulation of Cu and a set of biomarkers were analysed. Results show different responses among congeneric species indicating that it is not appropriate to use shallow-water shrimps as ecotoxicological proxies for deep-water shrimps. During the evolutionary history of these species they were likely subject to different chemical environments which may have induced different molecular/biochemical adaptations/tolerances. Results highlight the importance of analysing effects of deep-sea mining in situ and in local species to adequately assess ecotoxicological effects under natural environmental conditions.

The potential for climate-driven bathymetric range shifts: sustained temperature and pressure exposures on a marine ectotherm, Palaemonetes varians.

Range shifts are of great importance as a response for species facing climate change. In the light of current ocean-surface warming, many studies have focused on the capacity of marine ectotherms to shift their ranges latitudinally. Bathymetric range shifts offer an important alternative, and may be the sole option for species already at high latitudes or those within enclosed seas; yet relevant data are scant. Hydrostatic pressure (HP) and temperature have wide ranging effects on physiology, importantly acting in synergy thermodynamically, and therefore represent key environmental constraints to bathymetric migration. We present data on transcriptional regulation in a shallow-water marine crustacean (Palaemonetes varians) at atmospheric and high HP following 168-h exposures at three temperatures across the organisms' thermal scope, to establish the potential physiological limit to bathymetric migration by neritic fauna. We observe changes in gene expression indicative of cellular macromolecular damage, disturbances in metabolic pathways and a lack of acclimation after prolonged exposure to high HP. Importantly, these effects are ameliorated (less deleterious) at higher temperatures, and exacerbated at lower temperatures. These data, alongside previously published behavioural and heat-shock analyses, have important implications for our understanding of the potential for climate-driven bathymetric range shifts.

In situ observations of a possible skate nursery off the western Antarctic Peninsula.

A dense aggregation of skate egg cases was imaged during a photographic survey of the sea floor along the western Antarctic Peninsula in November 2013. Egg cases were noted in a narrow band between 394 and 443 m depth. Although some skate species in other oceans are known to utilize restricted areas to deposit eggs in great numbers, such nurseries have not been described in the Southern Ocean.

Acute combined pressure and temperature exposures on a shallow-water crustacean: novel insights into the stress response and high pressure neurological syndrome.

Little is known about the ecological and physiological processes governing depth distribution limits in species. Temperature and hydrostatic pressure are considered to be two dominant factors. Research has shown that some marine ectotherms are shifting their bathymetric distributions in response to rapid anthropogenic ocean surface warming. Shallow-water species unable to undergo latitudinal range shifts may depend on bathymetric range shifts to seek refuge from warming surface waters. As a first step in constraining the molecular basis of pressure tolerance in shallow water crustaceans, we examined differential gene expression in response to acute pressure and temperature exposures in juveniles of the shallow-water shrimp Palaemonetes varians. Significant increases in the transcription of genes coding for an NMDA receptor-regulated protein, an ADP ribosylation factor, ß-actin, two heat shock protein 70 kDa isoforms (HSP70), and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) were found in response to elevated pressure. NMDA receptors have been implicated in pathways of excitotoxic damage to neurons and the onset of high pressure neurological syndrome (HPNS) in mammals. These data indicate that the sub-lethal effects of acute barotrauma are associated with transcriptional disturbances within the nervous tissue of crustaceans, and cellular macromolecular damage. Such transcriptional changes lead to the onset of symptoms similar to that described as HPNS in mammals, and may act as a limit to shallow water organisms' prolonged survival at depth.

The use of stress-70 proteins in physiology: a re-appraisal.

There are few factors more important to the mechanisms of evolution than stress. The stress response has formed as a result of natural selection, improving the capacity of organisms to withstand situations that require action.The ubiquity of the cellular stress response suggests that effective mechanisms to counteract stress emerged early in the history of life, and their commonality proves how vital such mechanisms are to operative evolution. The cellular stress response (CSR) has been identified as a characteristic of cells in all three domains of life and consists of a core 44 proteins that are structurally highly conserved and that have been termed the 'minimal stressproteome' (MSP). Within the MSP, the most intensely researched proteins are a family of heat-shock proteins known as HSP70. Superficially, correlations between the induction of stress and HSP70 differential expression support the use of HSP70 expression as a nonspecific biomarker of stress. However, we argue that too often authors have failed to question exactly what HSP70 differential expression signifies. Herein, we argue that HSP70 up-regulation in response to stressors has been shown to be far more complex than the commonly accepted quasi-linear relationship. In addition, in many instances, the uncertain identity and function of heat-shock proteins and heat-shock cognates has led to difficulties in interpretation of reports of inducible heat-shock proteins and constitutive heat-shock cognates. We caution against the broad application of HSP70 as a biomarker of stress in isolation and conclude that the application of HSP70 as a meaningful index of stress requires a higher degree of validation than the majority of research currently undertakes.

Temporal change in deep-sea benthic ecosystems: a review of the evidence from recent time-series studies.

Societal concerns over the potential impacts of recent global change have prompted renewed interest in the long-term ecological monitoring of large ecosystems. The deep sea is the largest ecosystem on the planet, the least accessible, and perhaps the least understood. Nevertheless, deep-sea data collected over the last few decades are now being synthesised with a view to both measuring global change and predicting the future impacts of further rises in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations. For many years, it was assumed by many that the deep sea is a stable habitat, buffered from short-term changes in the atmosphere or upper ocean. However, recent studies suggest that deep-seafloor ecosystems may respond relatively quickly to seasonal, inter-annual and decadal-scale shifts in upper-ocean variables. In this review, we assess the evidence for these long-term (i.e. inter-annual to decadal-scale) changes both in biologically driven, sedimented, deep-sea ecosystems (e.g. abyssal plains) and in chemosynthetic ecosystems that are partially geologically driven, such as hydrothermal vents and cold seeps. We have identified 11 deep-sea sedimented ecosystems for which published analyses of long-term biological data exist. At three of these, we have found evidence for a progressive trend that could be potentially linked to recent climate change, although the evidence is not conclusive. At the other sites, we have concluded that the changes were either not significant, or were stochastically variable without being clearly linked to climate change or climate variability indices. For chemosynthetic ecosystems, we have identified 14 sites for which there are some published long-term data. Data for temporal changes at chemosynthetic ecosystems are scarce, with few sites being subjected to repeated visits. However, the limited evidence from hydrothermal vents suggests that at fast-spreading centres such as the East Pacific Rise, vent communities are impacted on decadal scales by stochastic events such as volcanic eruptions, with associated fauna showing complex patterns of community succession. For the slow-spreading centres such as the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, vent sites appear to be stable over the time periods measured, with no discernable long-term trend. At cold seeps, inferences based on spatial studies in the Gulf of Mexico, and data on organism longevity, suggest that these sites are stable over many hundreds of years. However, at the Haakon Mosby mud volcano, a large, well-studied seep in the Barents Sea, periodic mud slides associated with gas and fluid venting may disrupt benthic communities, leading to successional sequences over time. For chemosynthetic ecosystems of biogenic origin (e.g. whale-falls), it is likely that the longevity of the habitat depends mainly on the size of the carcass and the ecological setting, with large remains persisting as a distinct seafloor habitat for up to 100 years. Studies of shallow-water analogs of deep-sea ecosystems such as marine caves may also yield insights into temporal processes. Although it is obvious from the geological record that past climate change has impacted deep-sea faunas, the evidence that recent climate change or climate variability has altered deep-sea benthic communities is extremely limited. This mainly reflects the lack of remote sensing of this vast seafloor habitat. Current and future advances in deep-ocean benthic science involve new remote observing technologies that combine a high temporal resolution (e.g. cabled observatories) with spatial capabilities (e.g. autonomous vehicles undertaking image surveys of the seabed).