Boreal marine fauna from the Barents Sea disperse to Arctic Northeast Greenland

As a result of ocean warming, the species composition of the Arctic seas has begun to shift in a boreal direction. One ecosystem prone to fauna shifts is the Northeast Greenland shelf. The dispersal route taken by boreal fauna to this area is, however, not known. This knowledge is essential to predi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific Reports
Main Authors: Andrews, Adam J., Christiansen, Jørgen S., Bhat, Shripathi, Lynghammar, Arve, Westgaard, Jon-Ivar, Pampoulie, Christophe, Præbel, Kim
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: Nature Publishing Group UK 2019
Subjects:
Article
Arctic
Barents Sea
Greenland
atlantic cod
Fram Strait
Gadus morhua
Pandalus borealis
Sebastes mentella
Online Access:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6456728/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30967599
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-42097-x
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Summary:As a result of ocean warming, the species composition of the Arctic seas has begun to shift in a boreal direction. One ecosystem prone to fauna shifts is the Northeast Greenland shelf. The dispersal route taken by boreal fauna to this area is, however, not known. This knowledge is essential to predict to what extent boreal biota will colonise Arctic habitats. Using population genetics, we show that Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua), beaked redfish (Sebastes mentella), and deep-sea shrimp (Pandalus borealis) recently found on the Northeast Greenland shelf originate from the Barents Sea, and suggest that pelagic offspring were dispersed via advection across the Fram Strait. Our results indicate that boreal invasions of Arctic habitats can be driven by advection, and that the fauna of the Barents Sea can project into adjacent habitats with the potential to colonise putatively isolated Arctic ecosystems such as Northeast Greenland.

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