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The Asphalt Ecosystem of the Southern Gulf of Mexico: Abyssal Habitats Across Space and Time

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Abstract

Recent findings cap more than a decade of research on habitats for chemoautotrophic fauna that are generated by hydrocarbon seepage at abyssal depths in the southern Gulf of Mexico. Extensive pavements (3300 m2) of asphalt, created by repeated, slow discharges, are sparsely colonized by tubeworms that tap reduced sulfur compounds through cracks and fissures in the solidified material. At depths greater than 3000 m, gas hydrate forms instantaneously, generating frozen mounds 10 m or greater in diameter. These deposits are apparently stable for decades or longer, because they are colonized by massive arrays of tubeworms. The asphalt ecosystem of the southern Gulf poses special challenges for expanding deep-water oil production and many potential chemosynthetic habitats remain unexplored.

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Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge contributions of the German research vessel METEOR, its crew, our colleagues in the MARUM group, University of Bremen, Germany, and especially the late Heiko Sahling, chief scientist. IRM also acknowledges support from the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative/ECOGIG-2. 

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Florida State University, Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Tallahassee, FL, USA

    Ian R. MacDonald

  2. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, El Instituto de Ciencias del Mar y Limnología, Mexico City, Mexico

    Adriana Gaytan-Caballero & Elva Escobar-Briones

Authors
  1. Ian R. MacDonald
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  2. Adriana Gaytan-Caballero
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  3. Elva Escobar-Briones
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ian R. MacDonald .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. College of Marine Science, University of South Florida, St. Petersburg, FL, USA

    Steven A. Murawski

  2. College of Marine Science, University of South Florida, St. Petersburg, FL, USA

    Cameron H. Ainsworth

  3. College of Marine Science, University of South Florida, St. Petersburg, FL, USA

    Sherryl Gilbert

  4. College of Marine Science, University of South Florida, St. Petersburg, FL, USA

    David J. Hollander

  5. Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science, University of Miami, Miami, FL, USA

    Claire B. Paris

  6. Hamburg University of Technology, Hamburg, Germany

    Michael Schlüter

  7. Mote Marine Laboratory, Sarasota, FL, USA

    Dana L. Wetzel

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© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

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MacDonald, I.R., Gaytan-Caballero, A., Escobar-Briones, E. (2020). The Asphalt Ecosystem of the Southern Gulf of Mexico: Abyssal Habitats Across Space and Time. In: Murawski, S., et al. Scenarios and Responses to Future Deep Oil Spills. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12963-7_8

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