Alan Hughes

Current Research Interests

Since August 2004 I have been working on the NERC funded “Benthic Crozet” programme, which is associated with the CROZet iron bloom and EXport experiment (CROZEX). Benthic Crozet is investigating how the biogeochemical composition and flux of organic matter to the deep-sea floor drives benthic community structure, dynamics and diversity. We are investigating this at two sites (4200 m water depth) in the Southern Indian Ocean, located in the vicinity of Les Îles Crozet. Studying this area will help us to understand how organic compounds regulate life in the food-limited deep-sea environment, as the majority of animals at the sea floor are entirely dependent on food falling from the surface ocean above. This study will also provide new insights into how deep-sea communities change with time and how so many species can co-exist in the deep sea.

An undescribed deep-sea Foraminiferan, provisionally assigned to the genus Pseudobolivina. This species builds its test exclusively from the remains of coccolithophores - single celled plants which live at the sea surface.

My role on the Benthic Crozet programme is to investigate the community structure and diversity of the organisms living in the sediments. In particular, I am examining the role of the benthic Foraminifera, a group of organisms which often dominate deep-sea benthic assemblages. I am especially interested in the delicate, soft-bodied and agglutinated forms that have been overlooked in many earlier studies. Foraminifera play an important and active role in the dynamics of deep-sea benthic ecosystems. Their abundances are closely linked to the levels of organic matter input, and certain species respond rapidly to the seasonal deposition of organic matter. Understanding the role of benthic Foraminifera is therefore essential to understanding the biological and geo-chemical processes occurring in deep-sea sediments.

About me…

After completing a BSc in Marine Biology at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh I joined the Institute of Offshore Engineering (now ERT (Scotland) Ltd.) to work as an invertebrate taxonomist. After a few years looking at North Sea molluscs I was lured to Greece, to the Institute of Marine Biology of Crete where I was employed on two EU Marine Science and Technology (MAST) programmes investigating sulphide and methane-based ecosystems.

I left Crete in 1995 to do an MSc in Oceanography at the newly opened Southampton Oceanography Centre. As part of that degree I carried out a three-month project on deep-sea benthic foraminifera off the coast of North Carolina, with Dr. Andrew Gooday. I was hooked! Following a period back in Scotland, working for the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), in 1998 I returned to Southampton to work in the DEEPSEAS Group.

Since then I have worked on a number of short-term contracts, while completing a part-time PhD. The aim of my PhD was to examine the small and large-scale distribution of live deep-sea benthic foraminifera in the Northeast Atlantic; my supervisors were Professors Andrew Gooday and John Murray. This was based on research I started when employed on the NERC BENBO (Deep Ocean Benthic Boundary Layer) thematic programme, which focused on three oceanographically dissimilar sites in the Rockall Trough and Hatton-Rockall Basin. In the course of my PhD I also examined the effects of the xenophyophore Syringammina fragilissima on the small-scale distribution of foraminifera in the Northeast Atlantic. Xenophyophores are a fascinating and enigmatic group of giant protozoans which only live in the deep sea, and which can grow up to 25 cm across.

Recent Publications

Hughes, J.A. and Gooday, A.J., 2004. Associations between living benthic foraminifera and dead tests of Syringammina fragilissima (Xenophyophorea) in the Darwin Mounds region (NE Atlantic). Deep-Sea Research I, 51, 1741–1758.

Akoumianaki, I. and Hughes, J.A., 2004. The distribution of macroinfauna along a Mediterranean submarine cave with sulphur springs. Cahiers de Biologie Marine, 45, 355-364.

Van Gaever, S., Vanreusel, A., Hughes, J.A., Bett, B.J., and Kiriakoulakis, K., 2004. The macro- and micro-scale patchiness of meiobenthos associated with the Darwin Mounds (north-east Atlantic). Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 84, 547-556.

Gooday, A.J., and Hughes, J.A., 2002. Foraminifera associated with phytodetritus deposits at a bathyal site in the northern Rockall Trough (NE Atlantic): seasonal contrasts and a comparison of stained and dead assemblages. Marine Micropaleontology, 46, 83-110.

Gooday, A.J., Hughes, J.A. and Levin, L.A., 2001. The foraminiferal macrofauna from three North Carolina (U.S.A.) slope sites with contrasting carbon flux: a comparison with the metazoan macrofauna. Deep-Sea Research I, 48, 1709-1739.

Hughes, J.A., Gooday, A.J. and Murray, J.W., 2000. The distribution of live benthic foraminifera at three oceanographically dissimilar sites in the Northeast Atlantic: preliminary results. Hydrobiologia, 440, 227-237.

Online Report
Hughes, J.A., Narayanaswamy, B.E., and Bett, B.J., 2003. SEA 4: An overview of the benthic ecology of the Faroe-Shetland Channel. Report to the Department of Trade and Industry.

Syringammina fragilissima from the Darwin Mounds. The specimen is 35 mm across. (Paleovision Image taken by Dr. Andy Henderson, The Natural History Museum).