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. 2018 Feb 8;8(1):1788.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-20046-4.

Deep-sea hydrothermal vents as natural egg-case incubators at the Galapagos Rift

Pelayo Salinas-de-León  1   2   3 , Brennan Phillips  4   5 , David Ebert  6   7   8 , Mahmood Shivji  9 , Florencia Cerutti-Pereyra  10   11 , Cassandra Ruck  9 , Charles R Fisher  12 , Leigh Marsh  13   14
Affiliations

Deep-sea hydrothermal vents as natural egg-case incubators at the Galapagos Rift

Pelayo Salinas-de-León et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

The discovery of deep-sea hydrothermal vents in 1977 challenged our views of ecosystem functioning and yet, the research conducted at these extreme and logistically challenging environments still continues to reveal unique biological processes. Here, we report for the first time, a unique behavior where the deep-sea skate, Bathyraja spinosissima, appears to be actively using the elevated temperature of a hydrothermal vent environment to naturally "incubate" developing egg-cases. We hypothesize that this behavior is directly targeted to accelerate embryo development time given that deep-sea skates have some of the longest egg incubation times reported for the animal kingdom. Similar egg incubating behavior, where eggs are incubated in volcanically heated nesting grounds, have been recorded in Cretaceous sauropod dinosaurs and the rare avian megapode. To our knowledge, this is the first time incubating behavior using a volcanic source is recorded for the marine environment.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Bathymetric map of the Galapagos Marine Reserve (colored) with the location of the Galapagos Spreading Center (green line) and the Iguana-Pinguinos hydrothermal vent site (red dot) located 45 km north of Darwin Island. Gridded bathymetric data provided by the General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans (GEBCO) 30 arc-second grid (accessed via http://www.gebco.net/). Map created in ESRI ArcMap (version 10.3.1).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Higher resolution bathymetric map of the Iguanas-Pinguinos hydrothermal vent site at the Galapagos Marine Reserve. Map displays Hercules ROV CTD temperature (grouped in 1 °C increments) and position of individual egg-cases (black stars). Grey shaded areas denote distance from an active black smoker chimney. Contours generated from gridded bathymetric data provided by the General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans (GEBCO) 30 arc-second grid (accessed via http://www.gebco.net/). Map and associated shapefiles created in ESRI ArcMap (version 10.3.1).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Hercules ROV imagery from the Iguanas-Pinguinos hydrothermal vent site at the Galapagos Marine Reserve (excluding H). All images were taken between 1666-1649 m depth. Scale bar represents 10 cm. (a) High-temperature black-smoker chimney at Iguanas-Pinguinos East; (b) egg-cases observed along ridge in close proximity to black-smoker; (c) clutch of egg-cases with dark brown coloration; (d) bright-yellow egg case among associated vent fauna; (e) older egg-case with signs of fouling; (f) collection of egg-case using the Hercules ROV robotic arm; (g) eggcase located within <1 m of active vent chimney (temperature recorded by the probe was 4.52 °C); (h) an adult Bathyraja spinosissima recorded on a previous dive at the Tempus Fugit hydrothermal vent site located about 750 km to the east, but also within the Galapagos Spreading Center. Footage and screenshots provided by Ocean Exploration Trust Inc (www.oceanexplorationtrust.org/).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Number of egg case observations recorded as a function of water temperature detected by the Hercules ROV. The measured average background water temperature of 2.76 °C is indicated by the red vertical line. ROV altitude, reflecting the vertical position of the temperature probe, ranged 0.6–7.1 m. Recorded temperatures were consistently higher closer to the seafloor.
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