Towards the trophic structure of the Bouvet Island marine ecosystem

Although Bouvet Island is of considerable importance for Southern Ocean species conservation, information on the marine community species inventory and trophic functioning is scarce. Our combined study of stable isotopes and feeding relationships shows that (1) the marine system conforms to the trop...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: U. Jacob, T. Brey, I. Fetzer, S. Kaehler, K. Mintenbeck, K. Dunton, K. Beyer, U. Struck, E. A. Pakhomov, W. E. Arntz
Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
Format: Text
Language:English
Subjects:
Antarctic
Bouvet
Bouvet Island
Southern Ocean
The Antarctic
Antarc*
Online Access:http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.532.2168
http://eprints.ru.ac.za/808/1/Towards-the-trophic-structure.pdf
Description
Summary:Although Bouvet Island is of considerable importance for Southern Ocean species conservation, information on the marine community species inventory and trophic functioning is scarce. Our combined study of stable isotopes and feeding relationships shows that (1) the marine system conforms to the trophic pattern described for other Antarctic systems within the Antarctic circumpolar current (ACC); (2) both the benthic and the pelagic subsystem are almost exclusively linked via suspended particulate organic matter (SPOM); and (3) there is no evidence of a subsystem driven by macroalgae. Bouvet Island can therefore be characterized as a benthic “oasis ” within a self-sustaining open ocean pelagic system.

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