Research Note Scientific Gear as a Vector for Non-Native Species at Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vents JANET R. VOIGHT, ∗ RAYMOND W. LEE,† ABIGAIL J. REFT,‡ AND AMANDA E. BATES§ ∗ Department of Zoology, Field Museum of Natural History, 1400 S. Lake Shore Dr., Chicago, IL 60605, U.S.A., email jvoight@fieldmuseum.org †School of Biological Sciences, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164, U.S.A. ‡Department of Evolution, Ecology & Organismal Biology, 1315 Kinnear Rd., The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43212, U.S.A. §Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 49, Taroona 7001, Australia Abstract: The fauna of deep-sea hydrothermal vents are among the most isolated and inaccessible biological communities on Earth. Most vent sites can only be visited by subsea vehicles, which can and do move freely among these communities. Researchers assume individuals of the regionally homogeneous vent fauna are killed by the change in hydrostatic pressure the animals experience when the subsea vehicles, which collected them, rise to the surface. After an Alvin dive, we found 38 apparently healthy individuals of a vent limpet in a sample from a hydrothermally inactive area. Prompted by our identification of these specimens as Lepetodrilus gordensis, a species restricted to vents 635 km to the south of our dive site, we tested whether they were from a novel population or were contaminants from the dive made 36 h earlier. The 16S gene sequences, morphology, sex ratio, bacterial colonies, and stable isotopes uniformly indicated the specimens came from the previous dive. We cleaned the sampler, but assumed pressure changes would kill any organisms we did not remove and that the faunas of the 2 areas were nearly identical and disease-free. Our failure to completely clean the gear on the subsea vehicle meant we could have introduced the species and any diseases it carried to a novel location. Our findings suggest that the nearly inaccessible biological communities at deep-sea vents may be vulnerable to anthropogenic alteration, despite their extreme physical conditions. Keywords: Gorda Ridge, hydrothermal vent, Lepetodrilus, species introduction, stable isotope, subsea vehicle, Juan de Fuca Ridge Equipo Cient´ ıfico como un Vector para Especies No Nativas en Conductos Hidrotermales de Aguas Profundas Resumen: La fauna de los conductos hidrotermales de aguas profundas esta entre las comunidades biol´ ogicas m´ as aisladas e inaccesibles del mundo. La mayor´ ıa de los sitios en conductos solo pueden ser visitados por veh´ ıculos submarinos, que pueden moverse libremente entre estas comunidades. Los investi- gadores asumen que individuos de la fauna de conductos regionalmente homog´ enea mueren por el cambio de presi´ on hidrost´ atica que los animales experimentan cuando los veh´ ıculos submarinos que los recolect´ o suben a la superficie. Despu´ es de un viaje de Alvin, encontramos 38 individuos de lapa aparentemente sanos en una muestra de una zona inactiva hidrotermalmente. Motivados por nuestra identificaci´ on de estos espec´ ımenes como Lepetodrilus gordensis, una especie restringida a conductos 635 km al sur del sitio de muestreo, probamos si eran de una poblaci´ on nueva o eran contaminantes de nuestro muestreo realizado 36 horas antes. Las secuencias del gene 16S, la morfolog´ ıa, proporci´ on de sexos, colonias de bacterias e iso- topos estables indicaron uniformemente que los espec´ ımenes proven´ ıan del muestreo anterior. Limpiamos el muestreador, pero asumimos que los cambios de presi´ on matar´ ıan a cualquier organismo que no removimos y que las faunas de las 2 ´ areas eran casi id´enticas y no ten´ ıan enfermedades. Nuestro error de no limpiar el Paper submitted January 13, 2012; revised manuscript accepted February 24, 2012. 938 Conservation Biology, Volume 26, No. 5, 938–942 C 2012 Society for Conservation Biology DOI: 10.1111/j.1523-1739.2012.01864.x