Publication Date:
2021-07-06
Description:
Commercial exploitation and abrupt changes of the natural conditions may have
severe impacts on the Arctic deep-sea ecosystem. The present recolonisation
experiment mimicked a situation after a catastrophic disturbance (e.g. by turbidites
caused by destabilized continental slopes after methane hydrate decomposition) and
investigated if the recolonisation of a deep-sea habitat by meiobenthic organisms is
fostered by variations innutrition and/or sediment structure. Two "Sediment Tray Free
Vehicles" were deployed for one year in summer 2003 at 2500 m water depth in the
Arctic deep-sea in the eastern Fram Strait. The recolonisation trays were filled with
different artificial and natural sediment types (glass beads, sand, sediment mixture,
pure deep-sea sediment) and were enriched with various types of food (algae, yeast,
fish). After one year, meiobenthos abundances and various sediment related
environmental parameters were investigated. Foraminifera were generally the most
successful group: they dominated all treatments and accounted for about 87% of the
total meiobenthos. Colonizing meiobenthos specimens were generally smaller
compared to those in the surrounding deep-sea sediment, suggesting an active
recolonisation by juveniles. Although experimental treatments with fine-grained, algaeenriched
sediment showed abundances closest to natural conditions, the results
suggest that food availability was the main determining factor for a successful
recolonisation by meiobenthos and the structure of recolonised sediments was shown
to have a subordinate influence.
Repository Name:
EPIC Alfred Wegener Institut
Type:
Article
,
isiRev
Format:
application/pdf
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