CERIANTHUS-VOGTI DANIELSSEN, 1890 (ANTHOZOA, CERIANTHARIA) - A SPECIES INHABITING AN EXTENDED TUBE SYSTEM DEEPLY BURIED IN DEEP-SEA SEDIMENTS OFF NORWAY

Box core sampling, dredging and photographic records of sea floor structures at 1244-2926 m depth in the Norwegian Sea show the presence of the tube-dwelling anthozoan Cerianthus vogti DANIELSSEN, 1890 in an abundance of up to 3.5 specimens per M2. This species has not been reported since the original description. C. vogti builds an extended, branched, horizontal tube system, probably several metres long, below the oxic-anoxic boundary layer. This tube system is considered to be a kind of 'gas pipeline' through which CH4 and H2S might accumulate and pass to supply chemoautolithotrophic bacteria living in body tissue as symbionts or in the tube itself, i.e a bacterial gardening system. Through each of these two processes C. vogti may satisfy its food requirements in the oligotrophic deep-sea environment.