Distribution and composition of the epibenthic megafauna north of Svalbard (Arctic)
Benthic communities north of Svalbard are less investigated than in other Arctic shelf regions, as this area was covered by sea-ice during most of the year. Improving our knowledge on this region is timely, however, since climate change is strongly evident there, particularly with regard to the exte...
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Online Access: | https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/37421/ https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/37421/1/Sswat_et_al-2015.pdf https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.45076 https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.45076.d001 |
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ftawi:oai:epic.awi.de:37421 2023-05-15T14:27:06+02:00 Distribution and composition of the epibenthic megafauna north of Svalbard (Arctic) Sswat, Michael Gulliksen, Bjørn Menn, Iris Sweetman, A. K. Piepenburg, Dieter 2015-02 application/pdf https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/37421/ https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/37421/1/Sswat_et_al-2015.pdf https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.45076 https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.45076.d001 unknown SPRINGER https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/37421/1/Sswat_et_al-2015.pdf https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.45076.d001 Sswat, M. , Gulliksen, B. , Menn, I. , Sweetman, A. K. and Piepenburg, D. orcid:0000-0003-3977-2860 (2015) Distribution and composition of the epibenthic megafauna north of Svalbard (Arctic) , Polar Biology . doi:10.1007/s00300-015-1645-8 <https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-015-1645-8> , hdl:10013/epic.45076 EPIC3Polar Biology, SPRINGER, ISSN: 0722-4060 Article isiRev 2015 ftawi https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-015-1645-8 2021-12-24T15:40:17Z Benthic communities north of Svalbard are less investigated than in other Arctic shelf regions, as this area was covered by sea-ice during most of the year. Improving our knowledge on this region is timely, however, since climate change is strongly evident there, particularly with regard to the extent of sea-ice decline and its huge eco- logical impact on all marine biota, including the benthos. Moreover, longer ice-free periods will certainly lead to an increase in human activity levels in the area, including bottom trawling. In two adjacent shelf and slope regions off northern Svalbard, we studied the composition of epibenthic megafauna and seafloor habitat structures by analyzing seabed images taken with both still and video cameras. In addition, we also used an Agassiz trawl to catch epibenthic organisms for ground-truthing seabed- image information. A wide variety of mostly sessile organisms 141 epibenthic taxa were identified in the ima- ges. The brittle star Ophiura sarsii and the soft coral Gersemia rubiformis were the most common species. At all stations [300 m in depth, evidence of trawling activities was detected at the seabed. The distribution of the benthic fauna in the study area exhibited a clear depth zonation, mainly reflecting depth-related differences in seabed composition. We conclude that natural factors determining the composition of the seafloor mostly affect the distribu- tion and composition of epibenthic assemblages. Anthro- pogenic impact indicated by the trawl scours found is likely also important at smaller spatial scales. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Arctic Climate change Polar Biology Sea ice Svalbard Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar- and Marine Research (AWI): ePIC (electronic Publication Information Center) Arctic Svalbard Polar Biology 38 6 861 877 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar- and Marine Research (AWI): ePIC (electronic Publication Information Center) |
op_collection_id |
ftawi |
language |
unknown |
description |
Benthic communities north of Svalbard are less investigated than in other Arctic shelf regions, as this area was covered by sea-ice during most of the year. Improving our knowledge on this region is timely, however, since climate change is strongly evident there, particularly with regard to the extent of sea-ice decline and its huge eco- logical impact on all marine biota, including the benthos. Moreover, longer ice-free periods will certainly lead to an increase in human activity levels in the area, including bottom trawling. In two adjacent shelf and slope regions off northern Svalbard, we studied the composition of epibenthic megafauna and seafloor habitat structures by analyzing seabed images taken with both still and video cameras. In addition, we also used an Agassiz trawl to catch epibenthic organisms for ground-truthing seabed- image information. A wide variety of mostly sessile organisms 141 epibenthic taxa were identified in the ima- ges. The brittle star Ophiura sarsii and the soft coral Gersemia rubiformis were the most common species. At all stations [300 m in depth, evidence of trawling activities was detected at the seabed. The distribution of the benthic fauna in the study area exhibited a clear depth zonation, mainly reflecting depth-related differences in seabed composition. We conclude that natural factors determining the composition of the seafloor mostly affect the distribu- tion and composition of epibenthic assemblages. Anthro- pogenic impact indicated by the trawl scours found is likely also important at smaller spatial scales. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Sswat, Michael Gulliksen, Bjørn Menn, Iris Sweetman, A. K. Piepenburg, Dieter |
spellingShingle |
Sswat, Michael Gulliksen, Bjørn Menn, Iris Sweetman, A. K. Piepenburg, Dieter Distribution and composition of the epibenthic megafauna north of Svalbard (Arctic) |
author_facet |
Sswat, Michael Gulliksen, Bjørn Menn, Iris Sweetman, A. K. Piepenburg, Dieter |
author_sort |
Sswat, Michael |
title |
Distribution and composition of the epibenthic megafauna north of Svalbard (Arctic) |
title_short |
Distribution and composition of the epibenthic megafauna north of Svalbard (Arctic) |
title_full |
Distribution and composition of the epibenthic megafauna north of Svalbard (Arctic) |
title_fullStr |
Distribution and composition of the epibenthic megafauna north of Svalbard (Arctic) |
title_full_unstemmed |
Distribution and composition of the epibenthic megafauna north of Svalbard (Arctic) |
title_sort |
distribution and composition of the epibenthic megafauna north of svalbard (arctic) |
publisher |
SPRINGER |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/37421/ https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/37421/1/Sswat_et_al-2015.pdf https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.45076 https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.45076.d001 |
geographic |
Arctic Svalbard |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Svalbard |
genre |
Arctic Arctic Climate change Polar Biology Sea ice Svalbard |
genre_facet |
Arctic Arctic Climate change Polar Biology Sea ice Svalbard |
op_source |
EPIC3Polar Biology, SPRINGER, ISSN: 0722-4060 |
op_relation |
https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/37421/1/Sswat_et_al-2015.pdf https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.45076.d001 Sswat, M. , Gulliksen, B. , Menn, I. , Sweetman, A. K. and Piepenburg, D. orcid:0000-0003-3977-2860 (2015) Distribution and composition of the epibenthic megafauna north of Svalbard (Arctic) , Polar Biology . doi:10.1007/s00300-015-1645-8 <https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-015-1645-8> , hdl:10013/epic.45076 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-015-1645-8 |
container_title |
Polar Biology |
container_volume |
38 |
container_issue |
6 |
container_start_page |
861 |
op_container_end_page |
877 |
_version_ |
1766300678301417472 |