Importance of oceanographical background for a conservation priority areas network planned using MARXAN decision support tool in the Russian Arctic seas

Abstract

Abstract1. The aim of the present study is to assess a conservation priority area (CPA) network proposed for the Russian Arctic seas (47 areas) with regard to underlying oceanographical features and to discuss further development of marine conservation planning.2. The oceanographical features included in the analysis were obtained from the literature or inferred from schemes of climatic oceanography.3. The most frequent oceanographic feature associated with a particular CPA is constant advection of a particular water mass, followed by local water mass transformation, seasonal ice zones, flaw polynyas, and external sources of nutrients. Particularly important are major frontal zones, and coastal phenomena such as coastal/offshore waters transition zones, massifs of fast ice and specific regimes of semi-isolated fjords and bays.4. Each Arctic sea in the study area or its large part (in the Barents Sea) is characterized by a distinct combination of oceanographical features associated with the respective CPAs.5. Although most oceanographical features were not involved in the process of developing the CPA network directly, the resulting CPAs are shown to have a solid oceanographical background.

Data‐driven bioregionalization: A seascape‐scale study of macrobenthic communities in the Eurasian Arctic

“…Marine conservation efforts in the Arctic region are considered to be a high priority in the face of recent climatic changes and the concomitant intensification of human activities (Solovyev et al, 2017; Spiridonov et al, 2017). In general, the RCP approach can be considered a powerful model‐based mapping tool for informing ongoing and planned spatial conservation management (Hill et al, 2017).…”

Identifying a network of priority areas for conservation in the Arctic seas: Practical lessons from Russia

“…The reason for this is the extremely high variability of primary production characteristics in the water column of the Arctic seas both spatially and seasonally (Vetrov & Romankevich, , ) and the lack of comparable data for alternative sources of primary production such as sea ice flora and microbiota (Carmack et al, ; Ilyash & Zhitina, ; Romankevich & Vetrov, ). However, the inclusion of polynyas and marginal ice zone, known for their impact on primary production (Carmack & Wassmann, ; Carmack et al, ), and indirect effects of decreasing costs of planning units in oceanographical fronts known for enhancing the effect on biological productivity and biomass concentration (Carmack & Wassmann, ; Flint, Poyarkov, & Soloviev, ; Sakshaug, ; Sakshaug, Bjørge, Gulliksen, Loeng, & Mehlum, ) made it possible to account for essential productivity features (Spiridonov et al, ).…”

“…Roff and Zacharias () define an ecoregion as an area of relatively homogenous species composition, which is likely determined by the predominance of a distinct suite of oceanographical or topographic features. Indeed, most priority areas are based on such features (Spiridonov et al, ), although most of them with the exception of polynyas were not included in MARXAN analysis. The proposed network of conservation priority areas in the Russian Arctic seas would consist of seascape‐ to ecoregion‐scale units which represent practically all currently defined biogeographical provinces (Table ) and would include different types of bays and straits (although apparently not all the types) and most archipelago areas.…”

“…A possible way to account for these changes could be continuous modelling for all the CFs based on the changing factors and repeated MARXAN analysis of all possible scenarios. This would be a very resource‐intensive and time‐consuming exercise but an extremely important one since biodiversity indicators in most of the selected areas are based on particular oceanographical and other environmental features (Spiridonov et al, ). Possible climate‐related changes of underlying environmental features of the proposed priority areas could also be discussed and explored.…”

Trophic niches of benthic crustaceans in the Pechora Sea suggest that the invasive snow crab Chionoecetes opilio could be an important competitor

“…The online version of this article (https ://doi.org/10.1007/s0030 0-020-02775 -3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. due to their importance as feeding grounds for seabirds and marine mammals (Spiridonov et al 2017;Denisenko et al 2019a;Gebruk et al 2020). However, rapid increases in human activities such as oil and gas extraction, shipping, tourism, combined with climate change, introduction of invasive species and the release of contaminants are predicted to have a cumulative impact on the unique marine ecosystems of the Pechora Sea (Sukhotin et al 2019;Semenova et al 2019).…”