Vulnerability of Deep-sea Hydrothermal Vent Communities to Disturbance: Evidence from Post-eruption Colonization on the East Pacific Rise

Hydrothermal vents on fast-spreading ridges experience frequent disturbances that exterminate local faunal communities. Vent communities generally are expected to be resilient to natural disturbance, but they may instead undergo a successional path to an alternative state, due to changes in larval supply, vent-fluid chemistry or physical habitat. Furthermore, recolonization after human disturbance, such as mining of mineral deposits, may be quite different. Resilience is important on a larger scale, as it influences diversity and dynamics in the regional metacommunity. In early 2006 a catastrophic eruption paved over most existing communities near 9°50’N on the East Pacific Rise, creating a natural clearance experiment and opportunity to investigate resilience. We had been monitoring recruitment at the site before the eruption, and have continued through 2014. In the first year post-eruption we found significant differences in species composition from pre-eruption communities, most notably the arrival of one limpet species Ctenopelta porifera that had been recorded previously only from 13°N, and the dominance of another, Lepetodrilus tevnianus, that had not been present in years prior to the event. After 2 years, C. porifera numbers had declined precipitously, most likely due to a decrease in vent fluid flux, while L. tevnianus persisted and a diverse suite of additional species started to arrive. Over the next 8 years, changes in species diversity and composition indicated that the community was transitioning toward a state similar to its pre-eruption condition, but key differences remained. These results demonstrate that environment, larval supply and foundation species all influence succession of vent communities on the East Pacific Rise, and that the trajectory and rate of recovery are difficult to predict even after natural disturbance in this well-studied locale.