Spatial distribution patterns of ascidians (Ascidiacea: Tunicata) on the continental shelves off the northern Antarctic Peninsula.

• Published in: Polar Biology
• Main Authors: Segelken-Voigt, Alexandra, Bracher, Astrid, Dorschel, Boris, Gutt, Julian, Huneke, Wilma, Link, Heike, Piepenburg, Dieter
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: SPRINGER 2016
• Subjects: Antarctic; Antarctic Peninsula; Bransfield Strait; Drake Passage; Southern Ocean; Weddell; Weddell Sea; Antarc*; Polar Biology; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/41004/; https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/41004/2/Segelken_etalPoBi2016.pdf; https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.47970; https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.47970.d002

Ascidians (Ascidiacea: Tunicata) are sessile suspension feeders that represent dominant epifaunal components of the Southern Ocean shelf benthos and play a significant role in the pelagic–benthic coupling. Here, we report the results of a first study on the relationship between the distribution patterns of eight common and/or abundant (putative) ascidian species, and environmental drivers in the waters off the northern Antarctic Peninsula. During RV Polarstern cruise XXIX/3 (PS81) in January–March 2013, we used seabed imaging surveys along 28 photographic transects of 2 km length each at water depths from 70 to 770 m in three regions (northwestern Weddell Sea, southern Bransfield Strait and southern Drake Passage), differing in their general environmental setting, primarily oceanographic characteristics and sea-ice dynamics, to comparatively analyze the spatial patterns in the abundance of the selected ascidians, reliably to be identified in the photographs, at three nested spatial scales. At a regional (100-km) scale, the ascidian assemblages of the Weddell Sea differed significantly from those of the other two regions, whereas at an intermediate 10-km scale no such differences were detected among habitat types (bank, upper slope, slope, deep/canyon) on the shelf and at the shelf break within each region. These spatial patterns were superimposed by a marked small-scale (10-m) patchiness of ascidian distribution within the 2-km-long transects. Among the environmental variables considered in our study, a combination of water-mass characteristics, sea-ice dynamics (approximated by 5-year averages in sea-ice cover in the region of or surrounding the photographic stations), as well as the seabed ruggedness, was identified as explaining best the distribution patterns of the ascidians.