Image based quantitative comparisons indicate heightened megabenthos diversity and abundance at a site of weak hydrocarbon seepage in the southwestern Barents Sea

• Published in: PeerJ
• Main Authors: Sen, Arunima, Chitkara, Chestaa, Hong, Wei-Li, Lepland, Aivo, Cochrane, Sabine, Di Primio, Rolando, Brunstad, Harald
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: PeerJ Inc. 2019
• Subjects: VDP::Matematikk og Naturvitenskap: 400::Zoologiske og botaniske fag: 480::Økologi: 488; VDP::Matematikk og Naturvitenskap: 400::Zoologiske og botaniske fag: 480::Marinbiologi: 497; Arctic; Barents Sea; Svanefjell
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/11250/2659019; https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.7398

Background. High primary productivity in the midst of high toxicity defines hydrocarbon seeps; this feature usually results in significantly higher biomass, but in lower diversity communities at seeps rather than in the surrounding non-seep benthos. Qualitative estimates indicate that this dichotomy...