High Abundance of the Epibenthic Trachymedusa Ptychogastria polaris Allman, 1878 (Hydrozoa, Trachylina) in Subpolar Fjords along the West Antarctic Peninsula
Medusae can be conspicuous and abundant members of seafloor communities in deep-sea benthic boundary layers. The epibenthic trachymedusa, Ptychogastria polaris Allman, 1878 (Hydrozoa: Trachylina: Ptychogastriidae) occurs in the cold, high latitude systems of both the northern and southern hemisphere...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:5214585 2023-05-15T14:03:22+02:00 High Abundance of the Epibenthic Trachymedusa Ptychogastria polaris Allman, 1878 (Hydrozoa, Trachylina) in Subpolar Fjords along the West Antarctic Peninsula Grange, Laura J. Smith, Craig R. Lindsay, Dhugal J. Bentlage, Bastian Youngbluth, Marsh J. 2017-01-04 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5214585/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28052087 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0168648 en eng Public Library of Science http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5214585/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28052087 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0168648 © 2017 Grange et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. CC-BY Research Article Text 2017 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0168648 2017-01-22T01:03:45Z Medusae can be conspicuous and abundant members of seafloor communities in deep-sea benthic boundary layers. The epibenthic trachymedusa, Ptychogastria polaris Allman, 1878 (Hydrozoa: Trachylina: Ptychogastriidae) occurs in the cold, high latitude systems of both the northern and southern hemispheres, with a circumpolar distribution in Arctic and sub-Arctic areas, and disjunct reports of a few individuals from Antarctica. In January-February 2010, during benthic megafaunal photosurveys in three subpolar fjords along the West Antarctic Peninsula (Andvord, Flandres and Barilari Bays), P. polaris was recorded in Antarctic Peninsula waters. The trachymedusa, identified from megacore-collected specimens, was a common component of the epifauna in the sediment floored basins at 436–725 m depths in Andvord and Flandres Bays, reaching densities up to 13 m-2, with mean densities in individual basins ranging from 0.06 to 4.19 m-2. These densities are 2 to 400-fold higher than previously reported for P. polaris in either the Arctic or Antarctic. This trachymedusa had an aggregated distribution, occurring frequently in Andvord Bay, but was often solitary in Flandres Bay, with a distribution not significantly different from random. Epibenthic individuals were similar in size, typically measuring 15–25 mm in bell diameter. A morphologically similar trachymedusa, presumably the same species, was also observed in the water column near the bottom in all three fjords. This benthopelagic form attained abundances of up to 7 m-2 of seafloor; however, most P. polaris (~ 80%), were observed on soft sediments. Our findings indicate that fjords provide a prime habitat for the development of dense populations of P. polaris, potentially resulting from high and varied food inputs to the fjord floors. Because P. polaris resides in the water column and at the seafloor, large P. polaris populations may contribute significantly to pelagic-benthic coupling in the WAP fjord ecosystems. Text Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Antarctica Arctic PubMed Central (PMC) Andvord ENVELOPE(-62.616,-62.616,-64.833,-64.833) Andvord Bay ENVELOPE(-62.650,-62.650,-64.833,-64.833) Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Arctic Barilari ENVELOPE(-64.700,-64.700,-65.916,-65.916) Flandres ENVELOPE(-63.417,-63.417,-65.033,-65.033) Flandres Bay ENVELOPE(-63.312,-63.312,-65.040,-65.040) PLOS ONE 12 1 e0168648 |
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Research Article Grange, Laura J. Smith, Craig R. Lindsay, Dhugal J. Bentlage, Bastian Youngbluth, Marsh J. High Abundance of the Epibenthic Trachymedusa Ptychogastria polaris Allman, 1878 (Hydrozoa, Trachylina) in Subpolar Fjords along the West Antarctic Peninsula |
topic_facet |
Research Article |
description |
Medusae can be conspicuous and abundant members of seafloor communities in deep-sea benthic boundary layers. The epibenthic trachymedusa, Ptychogastria polaris Allman, 1878 (Hydrozoa: Trachylina: Ptychogastriidae) occurs in the cold, high latitude systems of both the northern and southern hemispheres, with a circumpolar distribution in Arctic and sub-Arctic areas, and disjunct reports of a few individuals from Antarctica. In January-February 2010, during benthic megafaunal photosurveys in three subpolar fjords along the West Antarctic Peninsula (Andvord, Flandres and Barilari Bays), P. polaris was recorded in Antarctic Peninsula waters. The trachymedusa, identified from megacore-collected specimens, was a common component of the epifauna in the sediment floored basins at 436–725 m depths in Andvord and Flandres Bays, reaching densities up to 13 m-2, with mean densities in individual basins ranging from 0.06 to 4.19 m-2. These densities are 2 to 400-fold higher than previously reported for P. polaris in either the Arctic or Antarctic. This trachymedusa had an aggregated distribution, occurring frequently in Andvord Bay, but was often solitary in Flandres Bay, with a distribution not significantly different from random. Epibenthic individuals were similar in size, typically measuring 15–25 mm in bell diameter. A morphologically similar trachymedusa, presumably the same species, was also observed in the water column near the bottom in all three fjords. This benthopelagic form attained abundances of up to 7 m-2 of seafloor; however, most P. polaris (~ 80%), were observed on soft sediments. Our findings indicate that fjords provide a prime habitat for the development of dense populations of P. polaris, potentially resulting from high and varied food inputs to the fjord floors. Because P. polaris resides in the water column and at the seafloor, large P. polaris populations may contribute significantly to pelagic-benthic coupling in the WAP fjord ecosystems. |
format |
Text |
author |
Grange, Laura J. Smith, Craig R. Lindsay, Dhugal J. Bentlage, Bastian Youngbluth, Marsh J. |
author_facet |
Grange, Laura J. Smith, Craig R. Lindsay, Dhugal J. Bentlage, Bastian Youngbluth, Marsh J. |
author_sort |
Grange, Laura J. |
title |
High Abundance of the Epibenthic Trachymedusa Ptychogastria polaris Allman, 1878 (Hydrozoa, Trachylina) in Subpolar Fjords along the West Antarctic Peninsula |
title_short |
High Abundance of the Epibenthic Trachymedusa Ptychogastria polaris Allman, 1878 (Hydrozoa, Trachylina) in Subpolar Fjords along the West Antarctic Peninsula |
title_full |
High Abundance of the Epibenthic Trachymedusa Ptychogastria polaris Allman, 1878 (Hydrozoa, Trachylina) in Subpolar Fjords along the West Antarctic Peninsula |
title_fullStr |
High Abundance of the Epibenthic Trachymedusa Ptychogastria polaris Allman, 1878 (Hydrozoa, Trachylina) in Subpolar Fjords along the West Antarctic Peninsula |
title_full_unstemmed |
High Abundance of the Epibenthic Trachymedusa Ptychogastria polaris Allman, 1878 (Hydrozoa, Trachylina) in Subpolar Fjords along the West Antarctic Peninsula |
title_sort |
high abundance of the epibenthic trachymedusa ptychogastria polaris allman, 1878 (hydrozoa, trachylina) in subpolar fjords along the west antarctic peninsula |
publisher |
Public Library of Science |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5214585/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28052087 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0168648 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-62.616,-62.616,-64.833,-64.833) ENVELOPE(-62.650,-62.650,-64.833,-64.833) ENVELOPE(-64.700,-64.700,-65.916,-65.916) ENVELOPE(-63.417,-63.417,-65.033,-65.033) ENVELOPE(-63.312,-63.312,-65.040,-65.040) |
geographic |
Andvord Andvord Bay Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Arctic Barilari Flandres Flandres Bay |
geographic_facet |
Andvord Andvord Bay Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Arctic Barilari Flandres Flandres Bay |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Antarctica Arctic |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Antarctica Arctic |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5214585/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28052087 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0168648 |
op_rights |
© 2017 Grange et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0168648 |
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