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Trophic plasticity of Antarctic echinoids under contrasted environmental conditions

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Abstract

Echinoids are common members of Antarctic zoobenthos, and different groups can show important trophic diversity. As part of the ANT-XXIX/3 cruise of RV Polarstern, trophic plasticity of sea urchins was studied in three neighbouring regions (Drake Passage, Bransfield Strait and Weddell Sea) featuring several depth-related habitats offering different trophic environments to benthic consumers. Three families with contrasting feeding habits (Cidaridae, Echinidae and Schizasteridae) were studied. Gut content examination and stable isotopes ratios of C and N suggest that each of the studied families showed a different response to variation in environmental and food conditions. Schizasteridae trophic plasticity was low, and these sea urchins were bulk sediment feeders relying on sediment-associated organic matter in all regions and/or depth-related habitats. Cidaridae consumed the most animal-derived material. Their diet varied according to the considered area, as sea urchins from Bransfield Strait relied mostly on living and/or dead animal material, while specimens from Weddell Sea fed on a mixture of dead animal material and other detritus. Echinidae also showed important trophic plasticity. They fed on various detrital items in Bransfield Strait, and selectivity of ingested material varied across depth-related habitats. In Weddell Sea, stable isotopes revealed that they mostly relied on highly 13C-enriched food items, presumably microbially reworked benthic detritus. The differences in adaptive strategies could lead to family-specific responses of Antarctic echinoids to environmental and food-related changes.

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Acknowledgments

Authors would like to thank Prof. Dr. Julian Gutt (Alfred Wegener Institute, Bremerhaven, Germany) for his invitation to participate to the ANT-XXIX/3 cruise and the crew of RV Polarstern for their help during sample collection. Comments from two anonymous reviewers, from Special Issue Guest Editor and from Editor-in-Chief, helped us to improve the quality of this manuscript. Loïc N. Michel is a Belgian Science Policy Office (BELSPO) postdoctoral fellow. Philippe Dubois is a Belgian Fund for Scientific Research (F.R.S-FNRS) research director and Gilles Lepoint is a F.R.S.-FNRS research associate. Chantal De Ridder and Philippe Dubois were supported by F.R.S-FNRS “short stay abroad” travel grants (Grants No. 2013/V3/5/034 and 2013/V3/5/035). This is Contribution No. 10 to the vERSO Project (www.versoproject.be), funded by the Belgian Science Policy Office (BELSPO, Contract No. BR/132/A1/vERSO). This paper is MARE Publication No. 317.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Oceanology, MARE Centre, University of Liege, Liège, Belgium

    Loïc N. Michel & Gilles Lepoint

  2. Biogéosciences, UMR CNRS 6282, Université de Bourgogne, Dijon, France

    Bruno David

  3. Laboratoire de Biologie Marine, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium

    Philippe Dubois & Chantal De Ridder

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  1. Loïc N. Michel
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Correspondence to Loïc N. Michel.

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Additional information

This article belongs to the special issue on “High environmental variability and steep biological gradients in the waters off the northern Antarctic Peninsula”, coordinated by Julian Gutt, Bruno David and Enrique Isla.

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Michel, L.N., David, B., Dubois, P. et al. Trophic plasticity of Antarctic echinoids under contrasted environmental conditions. Polar Biol 39, 913–923 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-015-1873-y

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