Image_1_Linking Ross Sea Coastal Benthic Communities to Environmental Conditions: Documenting Baselines in a Spatially Variable and Changing World.jpg
Understanding the functionality of marine benthic ecosystems, and how they are influenced by their physical environment, is fundamental to realistically predicting effects of future environmental change. The Antarctic faces multiple environmental pressures associated with greenhouse gas emissions, e...
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ftfrontimediafig:oai:figshare.com:article/6791045 2023-05-15T13:53:43+02:00 Image_1_Linking Ross Sea Coastal Benthic Communities to Environmental Conditions: Documenting Baselines in a Spatially Variable and Changing World.jpg Vonda J. Cummings Judi E. Hewitt Simon F. Thrush Peter M. Marriott N. Jane Halliday Alf Norkko 2018-07-09T04:28:44Z https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2018.00232.s001 https://figshare.com/articles/Image_1_Linking_Ross_Sea_Coastal_Benthic_Communities_to_Environmental_Conditions_Documenting_Baselines_in_a_Spatially_Variable_and_Changing_World_jpg/6791045 unknown doi:10.3389/fmars.2018.00232.s001 https://figshare.com/articles/Image_1_Linking_Ross_Sea_Coastal_Benthic_Communities_to_Environmental_Conditions_Documenting_Baselines_in_a_Spatially_Variable_and_Changing_World_jpg/6791045 CC BY 4.0 CC-BY Oceanography Marine Biology Marine Geoscience Biological Oceanography Chemical Oceanography Physical Oceanography Marine Engineering Antarctica benthos coast environmental change multi-scale observations functional traits Image Figure 2018 ftfrontimediafig https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2018.00232.s001 2018-07-11T22:57:14Z Understanding the functionality of marine benthic ecosystems, and how they are influenced by their physical environment, is fundamental to realistically predicting effects of future environmental change. The Antarctic faces multiple environmental pressures associated with greenhouse gas emissions, emphasizing the need for baseline information on biodiversity and the bio-physical processes that influence biodiversity. We describe a survey of shallow water benthic communities at eight Ross Sea locations with a range of environmental characteristics. Our analyses link coastal benthic community composition to seafloor habitat and sedimentary parameters and broader scale features, at locations encompassing considerable spatial extent and variation in environmental characteristics (e.g., seafloor habitat, sea ice conditions, hydrodynamic regime, light). Our aims were to: (i) document existing benthic communities, habitats and environmental conditions against which to assess future change, (ii) investigate the relationships between environmental and habitat characteristics and benthic community structure and function, and (iii) determine whether these relationships were dependent on spatial extent. A very high percentage (>95%) of the between-location variability in macro- or epifaunal community composition was explainable using multi-scale environmental variables. The explanatory power varied depending on the scale of influence of the environmental variables measured (fine and medium-scale habitat, broad scale), and with community type. However, the inclusion of parameters at all scales produced the most powerful model for both communities. Ice duration, ice thickness and snow cover were important broad scale variables identified that directly relate to climate change. Even when using only habitat-scale variables, extending the spatial scale of the study from three locations covering 32 km to eight locations covering ~340 km increased the degree of explanatory power from 18–32 to 64–78%. The increase in explanatory ... Still Image Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Ross Sea Sea ice Frontiers: Figshare Antarctic Ross Sea The Antarctic |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Frontiers: Figshare |
op_collection_id |
ftfrontimediafig |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Oceanography Marine Biology Marine Geoscience Biological Oceanography Chemical Oceanography Physical Oceanography Marine Engineering Antarctica benthos coast environmental change multi-scale observations functional traits |
spellingShingle |
Oceanography Marine Biology Marine Geoscience Biological Oceanography Chemical Oceanography Physical Oceanography Marine Engineering Antarctica benthos coast environmental change multi-scale observations functional traits Vonda J. Cummings Judi E. Hewitt Simon F. Thrush Peter M. Marriott N. Jane Halliday Alf Norkko Image_1_Linking Ross Sea Coastal Benthic Communities to Environmental Conditions: Documenting Baselines in a Spatially Variable and Changing World.jpg |
topic_facet |
Oceanography Marine Biology Marine Geoscience Biological Oceanography Chemical Oceanography Physical Oceanography Marine Engineering Antarctica benthos coast environmental change multi-scale observations functional traits |
description |
Understanding the functionality of marine benthic ecosystems, and how they are influenced by their physical environment, is fundamental to realistically predicting effects of future environmental change. The Antarctic faces multiple environmental pressures associated with greenhouse gas emissions, emphasizing the need for baseline information on biodiversity and the bio-physical processes that influence biodiversity. We describe a survey of shallow water benthic communities at eight Ross Sea locations with a range of environmental characteristics. Our analyses link coastal benthic community composition to seafloor habitat and sedimentary parameters and broader scale features, at locations encompassing considerable spatial extent and variation in environmental characteristics (e.g., seafloor habitat, sea ice conditions, hydrodynamic regime, light). Our aims were to: (i) document existing benthic communities, habitats and environmental conditions against which to assess future change, (ii) investigate the relationships between environmental and habitat characteristics and benthic community structure and function, and (iii) determine whether these relationships were dependent on spatial extent. A very high percentage (>95%) of the between-location variability in macro- or epifaunal community composition was explainable using multi-scale environmental variables. The explanatory power varied depending on the scale of influence of the environmental variables measured (fine and medium-scale habitat, broad scale), and with community type. However, the inclusion of parameters at all scales produced the most powerful model for both communities. Ice duration, ice thickness and snow cover were important broad scale variables identified that directly relate to climate change. Even when using only habitat-scale variables, extending the spatial scale of the study from three locations covering 32 km to eight locations covering ~340 km increased the degree of explanatory power from 18–32 to 64–78%. The increase in explanatory ... |
format |
Still Image |
author |
Vonda J. Cummings Judi E. Hewitt Simon F. Thrush Peter M. Marriott N. Jane Halliday Alf Norkko |
author_facet |
Vonda J. Cummings Judi E. Hewitt Simon F. Thrush Peter M. Marriott N. Jane Halliday Alf Norkko |
author_sort |
Vonda J. Cummings |
title |
Image_1_Linking Ross Sea Coastal Benthic Communities to Environmental Conditions: Documenting Baselines in a Spatially Variable and Changing World.jpg |
title_short |
Image_1_Linking Ross Sea Coastal Benthic Communities to Environmental Conditions: Documenting Baselines in a Spatially Variable and Changing World.jpg |
title_full |
Image_1_Linking Ross Sea Coastal Benthic Communities to Environmental Conditions: Documenting Baselines in a Spatially Variable and Changing World.jpg |
title_fullStr |
Image_1_Linking Ross Sea Coastal Benthic Communities to Environmental Conditions: Documenting Baselines in a Spatially Variable and Changing World.jpg |
title_full_unstemmed |
Image_1_Linking Ross Sea Coastal Benthic Communities to Environmental Conditions: Documenting Baselines in a Spatially Variable and Changing World.jpg |
title_sort |
image_1_linking ross sea coastal benthic communities to environmental conditions: documenting baselines in a spatially variable and changing world.jpg |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2018.00232.s001 https://figshare.com/articles/Image_1_Linking_Ross_Sea_Coastal_Benthic_Communities_to_Environmental_Conditions_Documenting_Baselines_in_a_Spatially_Variable_and_Changing_World_jpg/6791045 |
geographic |
Antarctic Ross Sea The Antarctic |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Ross Sea The Antarctic |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Ross Sea Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Ross Sea Sea ice |
op_relation |
doi:10.3389/fmars.2018.00232.s001 https://figshare.com/articles/Image_1_Linking_Ross_Sea_Coastal_Benthic_Communities_to_Environmental_Conditions_Documenting_Baselines_in_a_Spatially_Variable_and_Changing_World_jpg/6791045 |
op_rights |
CC BY 4.0 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2018.00232.s001 |
_version_ |
1766259092892942336 |