Meeting Abstract
Mammal carcasses represent extraordinary marine benthic habitats that harbor diverse communities over the course of their depletion and decay. One invertebrate group that features prominently during the opportunistic-enriched stage of decay is the dorvilleid polychaete genus Ophryotrocha. Species of this genus have been recorded from whale-fall experiments in wide geographic and bathymetric ranges. They are small, opportunistic worms that have direct development and feed on microbial mats on decaying bones. We studied the colonization patterns of 2 species of Ophryotrocha on mammal bones in the Mediterranean. We deployed Minke whale bones, cow bones, and pig bones at ~20 m on 3 different background substrates. Bones were deployed for a year, with samples collected at 3-month intervals. Ophryotrocha alborana and O. puerilis comprised the vast majority of worms collected over the course of the study. Analyses of cytochrome oxidase I (COI) sequences for O. alborana revealed unique haplotypes for worms from different bones and trimester samples, whereas COI haplotypes were shared among the different bones and trimester samples for O. puerilis. Size frequency analyses of the worms suggest that O. alborana colonized the bones through 3 separate recruitment events, while continuous recruitment is inferred for O. puerilis. Our study suggests that these different species of Ophryotrocha have different patterns of bone colonization despite sharing similar life histories.
