“Amperima Event” was over. The high POC flux of 2001 suggests that both events
were likely to be driven by food supply. Some of the usual dominants increased only
slightly in these intervals, but Peniagone diaphana decreased sharply, then came
back. Billett et al. (2010) point out that the time required to rework the entire surface
area of the sediment decreased during the event from >2.5 years to <6 weeks, and
throughout that period seasonal accumulations of flocculant detritus were not seen on
the PAP seabed. While cause and effect cannot be spelled out in close detail, it is
certain that trophic relations, and through them population processes of benthonts,
were greatly changed and changed back on a scale of a few years. The frequency of
such events cannot be determined, but, taken with faunal shifts seen at Station M, they
suggest dynamic and variable effects on benthic fauna driven by shifts of surface
productivity and export rates. Similar variations can be found between geographical
sites similar in most respects except for food supply from overhead production. For
example, Maynou and Cartes (2000) report strong shifts in community composition of
epibenthic, bathyal shrimp from adjacent basins with different annual productivity in
the Mediterranean.
Closing Note
(^) An old New Yorker cartoon shows some society ladies on sofas, drinking tea. One of
them is saying, “I don’t know why I don’t care about the bottom of the ocean, but I
don’t.” If you share some sympathy with her sentiment, there are many other subjects
in oceanography that should capture your interest. On the other hand, there are those
among us fascinated with the mud and its denizens, and new tools are granting them
rapid progress. As we continue to drill deeper in the seafloor for oil, with new spills
eventually inevitable, and continue to consider bottom waters as a possible repository
for carbon dioxide from fossil fuel, it is more than academically important that those
benthologists make progress. All Earth’s ecosystems are interconnected, so we need
to understand the benthos, even though our view is obscured by kilometers of water.
Note
1 As history buffs will recall, the Diet of Würms was a meeting in 1521 at
Würms of the General Assembly (nobility) of the German states, called by
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, to review the opinions of Martin Luther.
Luther defended himself, ending with the famous words (here in English), “Here
I stand. I can do no other. God help me, Amen.” The Emperor was not
sympathetic, but rather a defender of the faith. Luther disappeared on the way
home and was wrongly rumored to have been murdered. The history goes on, but