Responses of Southern Ocean Seafloor Habitats and Communities to Global and Local Drivers of Change

• Published in: Frontiers in Marine Science
• Main Authors: Brasier, Madeleine J., Barnes, David K.A., Bax, Narissa, Brandt, Angelika, Christianson, Anne B., Constable, Andrew John, Downey, Rachel V., Figuerola, Blanca, Griffiths, Huw J., Gutt, Julian, Lockhart, Susanne, Morley, Simon A., Post, Alexandra L., Van de Putte, Anton, Saeedi, Hanieh, Stark, Jonathan S., Sumner, Michael, Waller, Catherine Louise
• Other Authors: Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre (Australia), Australian Government, Natural Environment Research Council (UK), Belgian Science Policy Office, Agencia Estatal de Investigación (España)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Frontiers Media 2021
• Subjects: Benthos; Antarctica; Southern Ocean; Marine protected areas; Vulnerable marine ecosystems; Fishing; Antarctic; Antarctic Peninsula; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Iceberg*; Ocean acidification; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10261/248096; https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.622721; https://doi.org/10.13039/501100000270; https://doi.org/10.13039/501100011033

This work is a core contribution to the first Marine Ecosystem Assessment for the Southern Ocean (MEASO) of IMBeR’s program ICED.-- 30 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables, supplementary material https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2021.622721/full#supplementary-material Knowledge of life on the Southern Ocean seafloor has substantially grown since the beginning of this century with increasing ship-based surveys and regular monitoring sites, new technologies and greatly enhanced data sharing. However, seafloor habitats and their communities exhibit high spatial variability and heterogeneity that challenges the way in which we assess the state of the Southern Ocean benthos on larger scales. The Antarctic shelf is rich in diversity compared with deeper water areas, important for storing carbon (“blue carbon”) and provides habitat for commercial fish species. In this paper, we focus on the seafloor habitats of the Antarctic shelf, which are vulnerable to drivers of change including increasing ocean temperatures, iceberg scour, sea ice melt, ocean acidification, fishing pressures, pollution and non-indigenous species. Some of the most vulnerable areas include the West Antarctic Peninsula, which is experiencing rapid regional warming and increased iceberg-scouring, subantarctic islands and tourist destinations where human activities and environmental conditions increase the potential for the establishment of non-indigenous species and active fishing areas around South Georgia, Heard and MacDonald Islands. Vulnerable species include those in areas of regional warming with low thermal tolerance, calcifying species susceptible to increasing ocean acidity as well as slow-growing habitat-forming species that can be damaged by fishing gears e.g., sponges, bryozoan, and coral species. Management regimes can protect seafloor habitats and key species from fishing activities; some areas will need more protection than others, accounting for specific traits that make species vulnerable, slow growing and long-lived ...