Year: 2007
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: The arctic deep-sea morphotype of the hadromerid sponge Tentorium semisuberites is common in the Arctic deep sea, where it lives partially buried in soft bottom sediments.To investigate the chemical microenvironment of sponge cells and associated microbes, oxygen gradients in sponge tissue were measured with Clark-type microelectrodes.Profiles with step resolutions between 100 and 500 µm were measured vertically through the sponge body (4 mm).Similar profiles were measured in sediments of the sponge sampling sites.The characteristic shape of the profiles showed that sponges were alive and pumping during profiling.Oxygen concentrations were highest at the sponge surface and decreased towards the centre of the sponge, which vertically coincided with the sediment-water interface.Below, oxygen was found to increase again.The lowest oxygen concentration measured in T. semisuberites was 53 µM (15% of surrounding water).Oxygen concentrations from 2 mm above the sediment surface until 2 mm into the sediment ranged from 300 -270 µM.A part of the water filtered by this species is presumably sediment pore water, which is only slightly lower in oxygen than the overlaying bottom water.The sponge tissue thus provides an oxic to hypoxic habitat for the associated Archaea and Bacteria.
Source: Max Planck Digital Library
Authors: Friederike Hoffmann, Eberhard Sauter, Oliver Sachs, Hans Røy, Michaël Klages, Alfred Wegener
Language: English
Subfield: Biotechnology
Domain: Life Sciences
SDG: Life below water
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2183371736