Network analyses on photographic surveys reveal that invertebrate predators do not structure epibenthos in the deep (~2000m) rocky Powell Basin, Weddell Sea, Antarctica ...

• Main Authors: Khan, Tasnuva Ming, Griffiths, Huw J, Whittle, Rowan J, Stephenson, Nile P, Delahooke, Katie M, Purser, Autun, Manica, Andrea, Mitchell, Emily G
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Frontiers Media SA 2024
• Subjects: 37 Earth Sciences; 31 Biological Sciences; 3103 Ecology; 14 Life Below Water; Antarc*; Antarctic; Antarctica; Weddell Sea
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.17863/cam.109460; https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/369796

Predator-prey interactions in marine ecosystems control population sizes, maintain species richness, and provide intermediate disturbance. Such ecosystem structuring interactions may be rare in Antarctic epibenthic communities, which are unique among marine ecosystems worldwide for their dominance of soft bodied fauna (sponges, soft and hard corals, and echinoderms) and a simultaneous paucity of shell crushing predators (sharks, rays and durophagous decapods). In the shallow benthos, instead of durophagy, important Antarctic predators such as starfish, pycnogonids (sea spiders), nemertean worms, and nudibranchs employ grazing, scavenging, or sucking strategies. Far less is known about deep sea (>1000 m) Antarctic benthic communities due to the challenging nature of polar data collection, so that photographic surveys provide one of the only means of making in situ observations of these deep sea communities. We used seabed photographs of the deep (~2000m) slope of the Powell Basin, northwest Weddell ...