Specialist fauna populations from chemosynthetic ecosystems are connected through larval stages travelling in current highways in the vast deep sea. One shrimp family of such specialists, Alvinocarididae, is hitherto known to be endemic to vents and seeps with no reported occurrence in ephemeral organic-rich chemosynthetic habitats. Here we report the first occurrence of Alvinocaris muricola on experimentally deployed whale bones and wood parcels in the Brazil margin (21° to 26°S) at 1500 and 3300 m depth. We sequenced the COI, 16S and 28S markers for molecular identification of Southwest Atlantic (SWAtl) specimens and used COI sequences to inspect the molecular diversity and genetic distance between the SWAtl and the Atlantic Equatorial Belt (AEB) populations. SWAtl A. muricola exhibited lower nucleotide and haplotype diversities in comparison with populations along the AEB. The low genetic divergence detected here between the SWAtl and AEB populations is likely a result of larval connectivity through equatorial currents from the East Atlantic margin populations, whereas the SWAtl may be supplied through western boundary currents at bathypelagic depths. The occurrence of A. muricola in organic falls suggests the existence of other deep-sea chemosynthesis-based ecosystems in the SWAtl that could function as larval sources to organic islands and vice versa. Our study additionally supports the ecological stepping-stone role of organic falls between vent and seep ecosystems.

来自化学合成生态系统的专门动物种群通过幼虫阶段相连，这些幼虫阶段在广阔的深海中的当前高速公路中行驶。迄今为止，这类专家的一个虾科Alvinocarididae已知是通气孔和渗水的地方性物种，据报道在短暂的富含有机物的化学合成栖息地中没有发生这种情况。在这里，我们报道了在1500和3300 m深度的巴西边缘（21°至26°S）以实验方式部署的鲸鱼骨头和木质包裹上首次出现的Alvinocaris muricola。我们对COI，16S和28S标记进行了测序，以鉴定西南大西洋（SWAtl）标本，并使用COI序列检查了SWAtl和大西洋赤道带（AEB）种群之间的分子多样性和遗传距离。SWAtl A. muricola与沿AEB的种群相比，显示出较低的核苷酸和单倍型多样性。在此发现的SWAtl和AEB种群之间的低遗传差异可能是由于东大西洋边缘种群的赤道洋流通过幼体连通性造成的，而SWAtl可能是通过深海深处的西部边界流提供的。A. muricola在有机瀑布中的发生表明SWAtl中存在其他基于深海化学合成的生态系统，这些生态系统可以作为有机岛的幼体来源，反之亦然。我们的研究还支持了有机物在发泄和渗流生态系统之间的生态垫脚石作用。