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, Cheshtaa, Hong, Wei-Li, Lepland, Aivo, Cochrane, Sabine, di Primio, Rolando, Brunstad, Harald
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: PeerJ Inc. 2019
• Subjects: Ecology; Arctic; Barents Sea; Svanefjell
• Online Access: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6689391/; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31410307; 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...