Soft bottom community structure and diversity in Kongsfjorden (Svalbard), Reports on Polar and Marine Research.

• Main Authors: Laudien, Jürgen, Herrmann, Marko, Arntz, Wolf
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2004
• Subjects: Kongsfjord; Svalbard; Axinopsida orbiculata; Kongsfjord*; Kongsfjorden; Reports on Polar and Marine Research
• Online Access: https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/10044/; https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/10044/1/Lau2004a.pdf; https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.20537; https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.20537.d001

The macrozoobenthos (5-30m depth) of Kongsfjord (Svalbard) was quantita-tively investigated by a SCUBA-diver operated airlift system. 63 taxa were found, 30 of which were not reported for Kongsfjord and seven not for Sval-bard before. Suspensivorous or surface and sub-surface detritivorous poly-chaetes and deposit-feeding amphipods were dominant. Only 12 of 45 spe-cies and additional 18 families inhabited the complete depth range (the poly-chaetes Dipolydora quadrilobata, Chaetozone setosa, Euchone analis, Lum-brineris sp., Ophelina sp., Scoloplos armiger, Spio armata, Travisia forbesii, the bivalves Axinopsida orbiculata and Crenella decussata, and the Opisto-branchia Cylichna sp. Clustering the samples showed a significant difference (ANOSIM) between the shallow station (5m) and the rest, the latter formed two subgroups the medium depth stations (10m, 15m, 20m) and the deeper sta-tions (25m, 30m). The biomass ranged from 3.5 to 25.0 g ash free dry mass m-2 and Shannon diversity was 2.06 (SD 0.12). Observed differences in diver-sity are discussed in the frame of the intermediate disturbance hypothesis.