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Macroepibenthic communities at the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, an ecological survey at different spatial scales

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Abstract

The Southern Ocean ecosystem at the Antarctic Peninsula has steep natural environmental gradients, e.g. in terms of water masses and ice cover, and experiences regional above global average climate change. An ecological macroepibenthic survey was conducted in three ecoregions in the north-western Weddell Sea, on the continental shelf of the Antarctic Peninsula in the Bransfield Strait and on the shelf of the South Shetland Islands in the Drake Passage, defined by their environmental envelop. The aim was to improve the so far poor knowledge of the structure of this component of the Southern Ocean ecosystem and its ecological driving forces. It can also provide a baseline to assess the impact of ongoing climate change to the benthic diversity, functioning and ecosystem services. Different intermediate-scaled topographic features such as canyon systems including the corresponding topographically defined habitats ‘bank’, ‘upper slope’, ‘slope’ and ‘canyon/deep’ were sampled. In addition, the physical and biological environmental factors such as sea-ice cover, chlorophyll-a concentration, small-scale bottom topography and water masses were analysed. Catches by Agassiz trawl showed high among-station variability in biomass of 96 higher systematic groups including ecological key taxa. Large-scale patterns separating the three ecoregions from each other could be correlated with the two environmental factors, sea-ice and depth. Attribution to habitats only poorly explained benthic composition, and small-scale bottom topography did not explain such patterns at all. The large-scale factors, sea-ice and depth, might have caused large-scale differences in pelagic benthic coupling, whilst small-scale variability, also affecting larger scales, seemed to be predominantly driven by unknown physical drivers or biological interactions.

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Acknowledgments

Thanks are due to the SCAR biology programme ‘Antarctic Thresholds—Ecosystem Resilience and Adaptation’(AnT-ERA) due to financial support of a post-expedition workshop held in Dijon, France, in 2014 and to the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft for financial support of project JA-1063/17-1. ME was funded by the Actions thématiques du Muséum ‘Emergences’ of the Muséum national s’Histoire naturelle, Paris, France, and the Institut polaire français Paul Emile Victor (IPEV). Satellite data were provided by NASA (SeaWiFS, MODIS), ESA (MERIS, GlobColour) and PHAROS Group of University of Bremen. Marcus Huntemann (University of Bremen) helped with the extraction of satellite sea-ice concentration data. Support of cruise participation of PLG, IMB, NT by Spanish Project ECOWED (CTM2012-39350-C02-01).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Am Alten Hafen 26, 27568, Bremerhaven, Germany

    J. Gutt, A. Böhmer, A. Bracher, B. Dorschel, M. Schröder & A. Segelken-Voigt

  2. Italian National Antarctic Museum (MNA), and Department of Earth, Environmental and Life Sciences (DISTAV), University of Genova (Italy), Genoa, Italy

    M. C. Alvaro

  3. GEOMAR, Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research, Düsternbrooker Weg 20, 24105, Kiel, Germany

    A. Barco

  4. Institute of Environmental Physics, University of Bremen, Otto-Hahn-Allee 1, 28359, Bremen, Germany

    A. Bracher

  5. Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, 57 rue Cuvier, 75005, Paris, France

    B. David

  6. Biogéosciences, UMR CNRS 6282, Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, 6 bd Gabriel, 21000, Dijon, France

    B. David

  7. Laboratoire de Biologie Marine (C.P. 160/15), Université Libre de Bruxelles, 50 av. F.D. Roosevelt, 1050, Brussels, Belgium

    C. De Ridder

  8. UMR 7205 CNRS MNHN UPMC EPHE, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Département Systématique et Evolution, ISYEB, CP39, 57 rue Cuvier, 75231, Paris Cedex 05, France

    M. Eléaume

  9. Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum, Senckenberganlage 25, 60325, Frankfurt Am Main, Germany

    D. Janussen & D. Kersken

  10. Biodiversidad y Ecología de Invertebrados Marinos, Facultad de Biología, Universidad de Sevilla, Reina Mercedes 6, 41012, Seville, Spain

    P. J. López-González & I. Martínez-Baraldés

  11. Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Ammerländer Herestraße 114-118, 26129, Oldenburg, Germany

    A. Segelken-Voigt

  12. Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, 80121, Naples, Italy

    N. Teixidó

  13. Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM-CSIC), Passeig Marítim de la Barceloneta 37-49, 08003, Barcelona, Spain

    N. Teixidó

Authors
  1. J. Gutt
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  2. M. C. Alvaro
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  3. A. Barco
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  4. A. Böhmer
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  5. A. Bracher
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  6. B. David
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  7. C. De Ridder
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  8. B. Dorschel
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  9. M. Eléaume
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  10. D. Janussen
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  11. D. Kersken
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  12. P. J. López-González
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  13. I. Martínez-Baraldés
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  14. M. Schröder
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  15. A. Segelken-Voigt
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  16. N. Teixidó
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to J. Gutt.

Additional information

This article belongs to the special issue on High Environmental Variability and Steep Biological Gradients in the Waters off the Northern Antarctic Peninsula, coordinated by Julian Gutt, Bruno David and Enrique Isla.

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Gutt, J., Alvaro, M.C., Barco, A. et al. Macroepibenthic communities at the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, an ecological survey at different spatial scales. Polar Biol 39, 829–849 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-015-1797-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-015-1797-6

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