Publication Date:
2022-05-27
Description:
© The Author(s), 2021. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Castellan, G., Angeletti, L., Canese, S., Mazzoli, C., Montagna, P., Schiaparelli, S., & Taviani, M. Visual imaging of benthic carbonate-mixed factories in the Ross Sea region Marine Protected Area, Antarctica. Minerals, 11(8), (2021): 833, https://doi.org/10.3390/min11080833.
Description:
Marine biogenic skeletal production is the prevalent source of Ca-carbonate in today’s Antarctic seas. Most information, however, derives from the post-mortem legacy of calcifying organisms. Prior imagery and evaluation of Antarctic habitats hosting calcifying benthic organisms are poorly present in the literature, therefore, a Remotely Operated Vehicle survey was carried out in the Ross Sea region Marine Protected Area during the 2013–2014 austral summer. Two video surveys of the seafloor were conducted along transects between 30 and 120 m (Adelie Cove) and 230 and 260 m (Terra Nova Bay “Canyon”), respectively. We quantified the relative abundance of calcifiers vs. non-calcifiers in the macro- and mega-epibenthos. Furthermore, we considered the typology of the carbonate polymorphs represented by the skeletonized organisms. The combined evidence from the two sites reveals the widespread existence of carbonate-mixed factories in the area, with an overwhelming abundance of both low-Mg and (especially) high-Mg calcite calcifiers. Echinoids, serpulids, bryozoans, pectinid bivalves and octocorals prove to be the most abundant animal producers in terms of abundance. The shallower Adelie Cove site also showed evidence of seabed coverage by coralline algae. Our results will help in refining paleoenvironmental analyses since many of the megabenthic calcifiers occur in the Quaternary record of Antarctica. We set a baseline to monitor the future response of these polar biota in a rapidly changing ocean.
Description:
This research was supported by the GEOSMART (grant No. PNRA2013/AZ2.06, 29 May 2014–29 May 2017) and GRACEFUL (grant No. PNRA16_00069, 11 October 2017–10 October 2020) projects and funded by the Italian National Antarctic Research Program. This contribution is supported by the Ph.D. program in the Cultural and Natural Heritage of the University of Bologna (GC).
Keywords:
Antarctica
;
Ross Sea region MPA
;
remotely operated vehicles
;
carbonate factories
;
benthos
;
carbonate polymorphs
Repository Name:
Woods Hole Open Access Server
Type:
Article
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