11/12/2021, 18:23 Deep-sea ecosystems affected by climate change - MBARI

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November 2, 2009

Deep-sea ecosystems affected by climate change

The vast muddy expanses of the
abyssal plains occupy about 60
percent of the Earth’s surface and
are important in global carbon
cycling. Based on long-term
studies of two such areas, a new
paper in the Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences
(PNAS) shows that animal
communities on the abyssal
seafloor are affected in a variety
A deep-sea urchin crawls across the muddy seafloor at of ways by climate change.
Station M, about 220 kilometers off the California coast
and 4,000 meters below the sea surface. After studying
Historically, many people,
these and other deep-sea animals, Smith’s group has
including marine scientists, have
seen their populations change dramatically from one year
to another. Image: © 2007 MBARI considered the abyssal plains,
more than 2,000 meters below
the sea surface, to be relatively
isolated and stable ecosystems. However, according to Ken Smith, a marine ecologist
at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) and lead author of the
recent PNAS article, changes in the Earth’s climate can cause unexpectedly large
changes in deep-sea ecosystems. Based on 18 years of studies, Smith and his
coauthors show that such ecosystem changes occur over short time scales of weeks to
months, as well as over longer periods of years to decades.

The recent paper covers two time-series studies—one at “Station M,” about 220
kilometers off the Central California coast, and a second on the Porcupine Abyssal
Plain, several hundred kilometers southwest of Ireland. The flat, muddy seafloor at
these sites lies between 4,000 and 5,000 meters beneath the ocean surface.

In this cold, dark environment, very little food is available. What food there is takes the
form of bits of organic debris drifting down from the sunlit surface waters, thousands of
meters above. During its long descent, this organic matter may be eaten, excreted, and
decomposed, drastically reducing its nutritive value. It is estimated that less than five
percent of the organic matter produced at the surface reaches the abyssal plains.

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Research by Smith and his

coauthors has shown that the
amount of food reaching the deep
sea varies dramatically over time.
For example, at the Porcupine
Abyssal Plain, the amount of
organic material sinking from
above can vary by almost an order
of magnitude from one year to
another.

Such variations in food supply

have several causes. On a This map shows the locations of the long-term, deep-sea
study sites at Station M and the Porcupine Abyssal Plain.
seasonal basis, algal blooms near
Base map courtesy of NOAA (ETOPO1 Global Relief
the sea surface send pulses of Model)
organic material to the deep
seafloor. Other factors may also
come into play, including how much of the algae is eaten by marine animals, and how
the material is moved by ocean currents.

The authors point out that global climate change could affect the food supply to the
deep sea in many ways. Some relevant ocean processes that may be affected by
climate change include wind-driven upwelling, the depth of mixing of the surface
waters, and the delivery of nutrients to surface waters via dust storms. Climate-driven
changes in these processes are likely to lead to altered year-to-year variation in the
amount of organic material reaching the seafloor.

As one example of ongoing changes in deep-sea ecosystems, the authors point to the
fact that one of the most important groups of fish on the deep seafloor, the grenadiers,
doubled in abundance between 1989 and 2004 at Station M. They speculate that
change may be linked to a combination of climate change and commercial fishing.

In another example, some previously common species of sea cucumbers at Station M

virtually disappeared after 1998, while others became much more abundant. These
changes were tied to a significant El Niño event in 1997-98. Similar dramatic year-to-
year changes were observed at Porcupine Abyssal Plain, where they were linked to
changes in both the quantity and type of food reaching the seafloor.

Based on their observations, the authors conclude that long-term climate change is
likely to influence both deep-sea communities and the chemistry of their environment.
According to Smith, “Essentially, deep-sea communities are coupled to surface
production. Global change could alter the functioning of these ecosystems and the way
carbon is cycled in the ocean.”

Changes in deep-sea carbon cycling are not considered in most climate models, an
oversight that the authors believe should be corrected. In order to obtain the
information needed to include seafloor-community changes in global climate models,

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the authors suggest that long-term,

automated systems must be developed for
monitoring the deep sea.

Smith and his colleagues point out that deep-

sea ecosystems are prime targets for
monitoring using cabled ocean observatories,
new seafloor moorings, and robots, which
can provide continuous data to capture both
long-term and short-term changes in seafloor
conditions. As coauthor Henry Ruhl put it,
“What we need is to move beyond
fragmented research programs and transition
to a comprehensive global effort to monitor
deep-sea ecosystems.”

The research at Station M was sponsored by

A small grenadier fish swims over the grants from the National Science Foundation
seafloor at Station M. Between 1989 and
and the David and Lucile Packard
2004, the number of grenadier at Station M
doubled. Image: © 2007 MBARI Foundation. Research at the Porcupine
Abyssal Plain Sustained Observatory site
was supported by the European Union and
the Natural Environment Research Council of the United Kingdom.

Time-lapse video of deep-sea animals:

Time-lapse photography of deep-sea animals

Original journal article:

Smith, K.L., Jr., H.A. Ruhl, B.J. Bett, D.S.M. Billett, R.S. Lampitt and R.S. Kaufmann

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11/12/2021, 18:23 Deep-sea ecosystems affected by climate change - MBARI

(2009) Climate, carbon cycling, and deep-ocean ecosystems. Proceedings of the

National Academy of Sciences 106: 19211-19218.

More images

This stalked crinoid (a distant relative of sea

urchins) was photographed on the deep
seafloor at “Station M,” about 4,000 meters
below the surface and 220 kilometers west of
Point Conception on the California Coast.
Image credit: © 2007 MBARI

This photomontage (not to scale) shows some of the

deep-sea animals that live in the seafloor sediment at
“Station M,” about 4,000 meters below the surface and
220 kilometers west of Point Conception on the California
Coast. Starting in the upper left corner and proceeding
clockwise, these animals include a clam, an ostracod, a
polychaete worm, a brittle star, a cumacean, a tanaid,

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and a snail. In the center is a brachiopod. Image credit:

Kris Walz © 2007 MBARI

A small grenadier fish swims over the seafloor at Station

M. Between 1989 and 2004, the number of grenadier at
Station M doubled. This photograph was taken using an
underwater camera whose time-lapse photographs show
changes in the number and types of animals on the deep
seafloor (see video below). Image credit: © 2007 MBARI

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RELATED WEB PAGES
News release on this paper from the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton

AAAS Article on the supply of nutrients to the deep sea

Web page for the Porcupine Abyssal Plain observatory at the University of Southampton,
England

Researchers

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11/12/2021, 18:23 Deep-sea ecosystems affected by climate change - MBARI

Ken Smith
Senior Scientist/
Marine Ecologist

For additional information or images relating to this article, please contact: Kim Fulton-Bennett

831-775-1835, kfb@mbari.org

7700 Sandholdt Road, Moss Landing, California, 95039 U.S.A. | Phone: 831-775-1700 | Staff login

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