Patterns and trends of macrobenthic abundance, biomass and production in the deep Arctic Ocean

Degen, Renate; Vedenin, Andrey; Gusky, Manuela; Boetius, Antje; Brey, Thomas

doi:10.3402/polar.v34.24008

Cited by 29 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 51 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The secondary production (P) of Barents Sea megafauna was estimated with an empirical artificial neural network model (for detailed information on the model see Brey 2012; for another application in Arctic regions see Nilsen et al 2006 andDegen et al 2015). The model is implemented in an excel spreadsheet and can be freely accessed via www.thomasbrey.de/science/virtualhandbook.…”

Section: Estimating Secondary Production (P) and Productivity (P:b Ramentioning

confidence: 99%

Patterns and drivers of megabenthic secondary production on the Barents Sea shelf

Degen¹,

Jørgensen²,

Ljubin³

et al. 2016

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Section: Estimating Secondary Production (P) and Productivity (P:b Ramentioning

confidence: 99%

Patterns and drivers of megabenthic secondary production on the Barents Sea shelf

Degen¹,

Jørgensen²,

Ljubin³

et al. 2016

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…It is difficult to say exactly what the reasons behind the differences are, but the environmental conditions at LS could influence the faunal feeding mode, consequently impacting food selection. LS is known for having high current velocities (Thomson 1982), which helps to support a high biomass of filter feeding taxa that utilize the currents to obtain particles suspended in the water column (Thomson 1982, Deubel 2000, Degen et al 2015. Interestingly, spionids, as well as Thyasiridae bivalves, the most abundant bivalve taxon at LS (Mäkelä et al unpubl.…”

Section: Ice Algae and Phytoplankton Uptake By Specific Taxamentioning

confidence: 99%

Ice algae versus phytoplankton: resource utilization by Arctic deep sea macroinfauna revealed through isotope labelling experiments

Mäkelä¹,

Witte²,

Archambault³

2017

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…The Arctic deep-sea benthos has likely evolved from shallow-water relatives inhabiting the large shelves, with cold temperatures close to freezing point prevailing across the entire depth range. Till today, the communities of the deep basins and the outer shelf share more than half of their taxa [5], and food limitation seems to be the main factor structuring community composition [6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…From the shelf to the deep-sea basins, food supply is declining not only because of increasing water depth, but also because northwards, the sun angle and the sea-ice conditions limit light availability to primary producers. A summary of the abundance, biomass and modelled productivity of the Central Arctic macrofauna was recently published by [6], covering samples from a 20-year period and a depth range of 520-5420 m. It was shown that standing stock and production of the benthic communities are several times higher under the seasonal ice than under the multiyear ice zones. This correlation was explained by the different particle flux under the seasonally and permanently ice-covered areas [6,17].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial distribution of benthic macrofauna in the Central Arctic Ocean

Vedenin

Gusky

Gebruk

et al. 2018

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

24Permanent ice coverage and the low primary production in the mostly ice-covered Central Arctic 25 ocean basins result in significantly lower biomass and density of macrobenthos in the abyssal 26 plains compared to the continental slopes. However, little is known on bathymetric and regional 27 effects on macrobenthos diversity. This study synthesizes new and available macrobenthos data 28 to provide a baseline for future studies of the effects of Arctic change on macrofauna community 29 composition in the Arctic basins. Samples taken during three expeditions (in 1993, 2012 and 30 2015) at 37 stations on the slope of the Barents and Laptev Seas and in the abyssal of the Nansen 31 and Amundsen Basins in the depth range from 38 m to 4381 m were used for a quantitative 32 analysis of species composition, abundance and biomass. Benthic communities clustered in five 33 depth ranges across the slope and basin. A parabolic pattern of species diversity change with 34 depth was found, with the diversity maximum for macrofauna at the shelf edge at depths of 100-35 300 m. This deviates from the typical species richness peak at mid-slope depths of 1500-3000 m 36 in temperate oceans. Due to the limited availability of standardized benthos data, it remains 37 difficult to assess the massive sea ice retreat observed in the past decade has affected benthic 38 community composition. The polychaete Ymerana pteropoda and the bryozoan Nolella sp. were 39 found for the first time in the deep Nansen and Amundsen Basins, as a potential first sign of 40 increasing productivity and carbon flux with the thinning ice. 41 expeditions in 1993 and 1995, nine bathymetric transects were made at the northern slopes of 69 Barents, Kara and Laptev Seas from shelf to abyssal depths. Results of these surveys were partly 70 published by [11], [15] and [16]. The present study provides additional analyses of legacy 71 samples from these expeditions and adds a substantial number of new data from surveys during 72 the sea-ice minimum in 2012 [6,17]. 73 Patterns of bathymetric distribution of benthic fauna were previously reviewed for different 74 temperate and tropical ocean regions [18][19][20][21][22][23]. According to generally recognised patterns, the 75 density and the biomass of macrobenthos decrease with depth due to the declining flux of 76 particulate matter as main food supply. In contrast, species diversity shows a parabolic pattern 77 with a maximum at depths of 1500-3000 m [24][25][26][27]. In the Arctic, the known species diversity of 78 around 1100 taxa does not appear to follow this pattern, and no mid-depth peak of diversity was 79 yet detected, potentially due to the strongly limited food supply (summarised in [28]). 80This hypothesis is supported by recent studies of horizontal distribution patterns of 81 macrofauna within the deep-sea Central Arctic. From the shelf to the deep-sea basins, food 82 supply is declining not only because of increasing water depth, but also because northwards, the 83 sun angle and the sea-i...

show abstract

Patterns and trends of macrobenthic abundance, biomass and production in the deep Arctic Ocean

Cited by 29 publications

References 51 publications

Patterns and drivers of megabenthic secondary production on the Barents Sea shelf

Patterns and drivers of megabenthic secondary production on the Barents Sea shelf

Ice algae versus phytoplankton: resource utilization by Arctic deep sea macroinfauna revealed through isotope labelling experiments

Spatial distribution of benthic macrofauna in the Central Arctic Ocean

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About