Insights into benthic macroinvertebrate ecology in the northern Bering and southern Chukchi Seas from stable isotope analysis ...

• Main Author: Green, Emma Mackenzie
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Digital Repository at the University of Maryland 2022
• Subjects: Environmental science; Biology; Biogeochemistry; benthic macroinvertebrates; ecology; food web; Pacific Arctic; stable isotope analysis; Arctic; Bering Sea; Chukchi Sea; Pacific; Chukchi; Climate change
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.13016/d77f-d7pi; https://drum.lib.umd.edu/handle/1903/29644

In the Pacific Arctic Region, the northern Bering Sea and southern Chukchi Sea support large and diverse communities of benthic macroinvertebrates that provide an important link to the pelagic communities and marine mammals that rely on the benthic populations for food. While the abundance and biomass of these benthic macroinvertebrates are well documented, little is known about how benthic macroinvertebrates interact with each other and how these interactions are affected by climate change. I measured the stable isotope composition (bulk δ15N and δ13C values) of similar species collected in 2014, 2016, 2017, and 2021 in the northern Bering and southern Chukchi Seas. Although there was little change over time in either δ15N or δ13C values, both stable isotope ratios were significantly different between stations with differing production phenologies. The southern Chukchi Sea (a productive set of sites with high chlorophyll concentrations throughout the summer) had lower δ15N values and higher δ13C values, ...