Wr. Callender et En. Powell, Why did ancient chemosynthetic seep and vent assemblages occur in shallower water than they do today?, INT J E SCI, 88(3), 1999, pp. 377-391
Cold-seep communities have relatively low diversity, are dominated by one o
r two taxa present in high density and high biomass in comparison with the
surrounding fauna, and are restricted to aphotic habitats. Their associated
heterotrophic fauna are usually distinctive from the fauna of their surrou
ndings. In contrast, a more commonplace chemoautotrophically based communit
y occurs in shallow photic habitats. The associated heterotrophic fauna inc
ludes many of the species typical of the surrounding communities and typica
lly dominates abundance, whereas the species with chemoautotrophic symbiont
s dominate biomass. All modern seep assemblages are deeper than 550 m. Many
fossil seep assemblages occurred in water as shallow as the mid-shelf (<20
0 m). In contrast, communities where species with chemoautotrophic symbiont
s are biomass dominants, but not numerical dominants, are common in shallow
waters at present but rarely reported in the geological record. We suggest
that the absence of cold-seep communities on the continental shelf present
ly is due to a combination of predation and competitive exclusion by primar
y consumers limiting the presence of species dependent on chemoautotrophic
symbionts. We suggest that cold-seep assemblages are more common at shelf d
epths in the fossil record for two reasons: (a) The biases of preservation
have accentuated their distribution by transforming communities where speci
es with chemoautotrophic symbionts dominate by biomass, but not numerically
, into cold-seep-appearing assemblages. (b) The importance of predation pre
ssure and oligotrophy has varied, with decreased predation pressure accompa
nying increased oligotrophy favoring cold-seep communities. We suggest that
the paucity of shallow-water assemblages with species harboring chemoautot
rophic symbionts as biomass dominants in the fossil record is based on the
reliance of paleoecological analysis on numerical abundance data when energ
y flow analyses are required to identify these assemblages. The distinctive
ness of the fossil seep assemblage is intensified by taphonomic processes t
hat bias the assemblage against small individuals and epifaunal species, so
that diversity declines, the small heterotrophic component of the assembla
ge is significantly reduced, and the epifaunal component is minimized. The
final assemblage is usually dominated by the better-preserved large infauna
l clams which perchance are also the species with chemoautotrophic symbiont
s. In contrast, preservation does not enhance the distinctiveness of these
chemoautotroph-harboring species in shallow water.