Climate change, glacier retreat and a new ice‐free island offer new insights on Antarctic benthic responses
The Antarctic Peninsula is among the places on Earth that registered major warming in the last 60 yr. Massive ice losses, represented by glacier retreat, ice‐shelf collapses and sea‐ice reduction are among the main impacts of this regional warming. The loss of sea‐bed ice coverage, on the one hand h...
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crwiley:10.1111/ecog.03018 2024-06-09T07:39:30+00:00 Climate change, glacier retreat and a new ice‐free island offer new insights on Antarctic benthic responses Lagger, Cristian Nime, Mónica Torre, Luciana Servetto, Natalia Tatián, Marcos Sahade, Ricardo American Museum of Natural History 2017 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ecog.03018 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fecog.03018 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/ecog.03018 en eng Wiley http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor Ecography volume 41, issue 4, page 579-591 ISSN 0906-7590 1600-0587 journal-article 2017 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.03018 2024-05-16T14:22:41Z The Antarctic Peninsula is among the places on Earth that registered major warming in the last 60 yr. Massive ice losses, represented by glacier retreat, ice‐shelf collapses and sea‐ice reduction are among the main impacts of this regional warming. The loss of sea‐bed ice coverage, on the one hand has been affecting benthic assemblages, but on the other it is opening up new areas for benthic colonisation. Potter Cove (South Shetland Islands) offered the opportunity of assessing both processes. We recently reported a sudden shift of benthic assemblages related to increased sedimentation rates caused by glacier retreat. This glacier retreat also uncovered a new island that presents a natural experiment to study Antarctic benthic colonisation and succession. We sampled the new island by photo‐transects taken up to 30 m depth. Here, we report an unexpected benthic assemblage characterised by high species richness, diversity and structural complexity with a well‐developed three‐dimensional structure and epibiotic relationships. Filter feeders comprised the largest trophic group at all depths, mainly ascidians, sponges and bryozoans. Densities were also surprising, recording only six ascidian species with a mean of ∼310 ind. m –2 . These values are at least an order of magnitude higher than previous Antarctic reports on early colonisation. This finding challenges the extended idea of a slow and continuous recruitment in Antarctica. However, it also opens the question of whether these complex assemblages could have been present under the glacier in ice‐free refuges that are now exposed to open sea conditions. Under the current scenario of climate change, these results acquire high relevance as they suggest a two‐fold effect of the Antarctic Peninsula warming: the environmental shifts that threaten coastal ecosystems, and also the opening up of new areas for colonisation that may occur at a previously unimagined speed. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Antarctica Ice Shelf Sea ice South Shetland Islands Wiley Online Library Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Potter Cove South Shetland Islands The Antarctic Ecography 41 4 579 591 |
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Open Polar |
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Wiley Online Library |
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crwiley |
language |
English |
description |
The Antarctic Peninsula is among the places on Earth that registered major warming in the last 60 yr. Massive ice losses, represented by glacier retreat, ice‐shelf collapses and sea‐ice reduction are among the main impacts of this regional warming. The loss of sea‐bed ice coverage, on the one hand has been affecting benthic assemblages, but on the other it is opening up new areas for benthic colonisation. Potter Cove (South Shetland Islands) offered the opportunity of assessing both processes. We recently reported a sudden shift of benthic assemblages related to increased sedimentation rates caused by glacier retreat. This glacier retreat also uncovered a new island that presents a natural experiment to study Antarctic benthic colonisation and succession. We sampled the new island by photo‐transects taken up to 30 m depth. Here, we report an unexpected benthic assemblage characterised by high species richness, diversity and structural complexity with a well‐developed three‐dimensional structure and epibiotic relationships. Filter feeders comprised the largest trophic group at all depths, mainly ascidians, sponges and bryozoans. Densities were also surprising, recording only six ascidian species with a mean of ∼310 ind. m –2 . These values are at least an order of magnitude higher than previous Antarctic reports on early colonisation. This finding challenges the extended idea of a slow and continuous recruitment in Antarctica. However, it also opens the question of whether these complex assemblages could have been present under the glacier in ice‐free refuges that are now exposed to open sea conditions. Under the current scenario of climate change, these results acquire high relevance as they suggest a two‐fold effect of the Antarctic Peninsula warming: the environmental shifts that threaten coastal ecosystems, and also the opening up of new areas for colonisation that may occur at a previously unimagined speed. |
author2 |
American Museum of Natural History |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Lagger, Cristian Nime, Mónica Torre, Luciana Servetto, Natalia Tatián, Marcos Sahade, Ricardo |
spellingShingle |
Lagger, Cristian Nime, Mónica Torre, Luciana Servetto, Natalia Tatián, Marcos Sahade, Ricardo Climate change, glacier retreat and a new ice‐free island offer new insights on Antarctic benthic responses |
author_facet |
Lagger, Cristian Nime, Mónica Torre, Luciana Servetto, Natalia Tatián, Marcos Sahade, Ricardo |
author_sort |
Lagger, Cristian |
title |
Climate change, glacier retreat and a new ice‐free island offer new insights on Antarctic benthic responses |
title_short |
Climate change, glacier retreat and a new ice‐free island offer new insights on Antarctic benthic responses |
title_full |
Climate change, glacier retreat and a new ice‐free island offer new insights on Antarctic benthic responses |
title_fullStr |
Climate change, glacier retreat and a new ice‐free island offer new insights on Antarctic benthic responses |
title_full_unstemmed |
Climate change, glacier retreat and a new ice‐free island offer new insights on Antarctic benthic responses |
title_sort |
climate change, glacier retreat and a new ice‐free island offer new insights on antarctic benthic responses |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ecog.03018 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fecog.03018 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/ecog.03018 |
geographic |
Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Potter Cove South Shetland Islands The Antarctic |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Potter Cove South Shetland Islands The Antarctic |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Antarctica Ice Shelf Sea ice South Shetland Islands |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Antarctica Ice Shelf Sea ice South Shetland Islands |
op_source |
Ecography volume 41, issue 4, page 579-591 ISSN 0906-7590 1600-0587 |
op_rights |
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.03018 |
container_title |
Ecography |
container_volume |
41 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
579 |
op_container_end_page |
591 |
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1801379957257011200 |