Habitat variability and faunal zonation at the Ægir Ridge, a canyon-like structure in the deep Norwegian Sea

The Ægir Ridge System (ARS) is an ancient extinct spreading axis in the Nordic seas extending from the upper slope east of Iceland (∼550 m depth), as part of its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), to a depth of ∼3,800 m in the Norwegian basin. Geomorphologically a rift valley, the ARS has a canyon-like...

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Main Authors: Brix, Saskia, Kaiser, Stefanie, Lörz, Anne-Nina, Le Saout, Morgane, Schumacher, Mia, Bonk, Frederic, Egilsdottir, Hronn, Olafsdottir, Steinunn Hilma, Tandberg, Anne Helene S., Taylor, James, Tewes, Simon, Xavier, Joana R., Linse, Katrin
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: PeerJ Inc. 2022
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Online Access:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9206436/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35726260
https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.13394
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spelling ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:9206436 2023-05-15T15:15:47+02:00 Habitat variability and faunal zonation at the Ægir Ridge, a canyon-like structure in the deep Norwegian Sea Brix, Saskia Kaiser, Stefanie Lörz, Anne-Nina Le Saout, Morgane Schumacher, Mia Bonk, Frederic Egilsdottir, Hronn Olafsdottir, Steinunn Hilma Tandberg, Anne Helene S. Taylor, James Tewes, Simon Xavier, Joana R. Linse, Katrin 2022-06-15 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9206436/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35726260 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.13394 en eng PeerJ Inc. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9206436/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35726260 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.13394 ©2022 Brix et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited. CC-BY PeerJ Biodiversity Text 2022 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.13394 2022-06-26T00:33:14Z The Ægir Ridge System (ARS) is an ancient extinct spreading axis in the Nordic seas extending from the upper slope east of Iceland (∼550 m depth), as part of its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), to a depth of ∼3,800 m in the Norwegian basin. Geomorphologically a rift valley, the ARS has a canyon-like structure that may promote increased diversity and faunal density. The main objective of this study was to characterize benthic habitats and related macro- and megabenthic communities along the ARS, and the influence of water mass variables and depth on them. During the IceAGE3 expedition (Icelandic marine Animals: Genetics and Ecology) on RV Sonne in June 2020, benthic communities of the ARS were surveyed by means of a remotely-operated vehicle (ROV) and epibenthic sledge (EBS). For this purpose, two working areas were selected, including abyssal stations in the northeast and bathyal stations in the southwest of the ARS. Video and still images of the seabed were usedtoqualitatively describebenthic habitats based on the presence of habitat-forming taxa and the physical environment. Patterns of diversity and community composition of the soft-sediment macrofauna, retrieved from the EBS, were analyzed in a semiquantitative manner. These biological data were complemented by producing high-resolution bathymetric maps using the vessel’s multi-beam echosounder system. As suspected, we were able to identify differences in species composition and number of macro- and megafaunal communities associated with a depth gradient. A biological canyon effect became evident in dense aggregates of megafaunal filter feeders and elevated macrofaunal densities. Analysis of videos and still images from the ROV transects also led to the discovery of a number ofVulnerable Marine Ecosystems (VMEs) dominated by sponges and soft corals characteristic of the Arctic region. Directions for future research encompass a more detailed, quantitative study of the megafauna and more coherent sampling over the entire depth range in order to fully capture ... Text Arctic Iceland Nordic Seas Norwegian Sea PubMed Central (PMC) Arctic Norwegian Sea PeerJ 10 e13394
institution Open Polar
collection PubMed Central (PMC)
op_collection_id ftpubmed
language English
topic Biodiversity
spellingShingle Biodiversity
Brix, Saskia
Kaiser, Stefanie
Lörz, Anne-Nina
Le Saout, Morgane
Schumacher, Mia
Bonk, Frederic
Egilsdottir, Hronn
Olafsdottir, Steinunn Hilma
Tandberg, Anne Helene S.
Taylor, James
Tewes, Simon
Xavier, Joana R.
Linse, Katrin
Habitat variability and faunal zonation at the Ægir Ridge, a canyon-like structure in the deep Norwegian Sea
topic_facet Biodiversity
description The Ægir Ridge System (ARS) is an ancient extinct spreading axis in the Nordic seas extending from the upper slope east of Iceland (∼550 m depth), as part of its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), to a depth of ∼3,800 m in the Norwegian basin. Geomorphologically a rift valley, the ARS has a canyon-like structure that may promote increased diversity and faunal density. The main objective of this study was to characterize benthic habitats and related macro- and megabenthic communities along the ARS, and the influence of water mass variables and depth on them. During the IceAGE3 expedition (Icelandic marine Animals: Genetics and Ecology) on RV Sonne in June 2020, benthic communities of the ARS were surveyed by means of a remotely-operated vehicle (ROV) and epibenthic sledge (EBS). For this purpose, two working areas were selected, including abyssal stations in the northeast and bathyal stations in the southwest of the ARS. Video and still images of the seabed were usedtoqualitatively describebenthic habitats based on the presence of habitat-forming taxa and the physical environment. Patterns of diversity and community composition of the soft-sediment macrofauna, retrieved from the EBS, were analyzed in a semiquantitative manner. These biological data were complemented by producing high-resolution bathymetric maps using the vessel’s multi-beam echosounder system. As suspected, we were able to identify differences in species composition and number of macro- and megafaunal communities associated with a depth gradient. A biological canyon effect became evident in dense aggregates of megafaunal filter feeders and elevated macrofaunal densities. Analysis of videos and still images from the ROV transects also led to the discovery of a number ofVulnerable Marine Ecosystems (VMEs) dominated by sponges and soft corals characteristic of the Arctic region. Directions for future research encompass a more detailed, quantitative study of the megafauna and more coherent sampling over the entire depth range in order to fully capture ...
format Text
author Brix, Saskia
Kaiser, Stefanie
Lörz, Anne-Nina
Le Saout, Morgane
Schumacher, Mia
Bonk, Frederic
Egilsdottir, Hronn
Olafsdottir, Steinunn Hilma
Tandberg, Anne Helene S.
Taylor, James
Tewes, Simon
Xavier, Joana R.
Linse, Katrin
author_facet Brix, Saskia
Kaiser, Stefanie
Lörz, Anne-Nina
Le Saout, Morgane
Schumacher, Mia
Bonk, Frederic
Egilsdottir, Hronn
Olafsdottir, Steinunn Hilma
Tandberg, Anne Helene S.
Taylor, James
Tewes, Simon
Xavier, Joana R.
Linse, Katrin
author_sort Brix, Saskia
title Habitat variability and faunal zonation at the Ægir Ridge, a canyon-like structure in the deep Norwegian Sea
title_short Habitat variability and faunal zonation at the Ægir Ridge, a canyon-like structure in the deep Norwegian Sea
title_full Habitat variability and faunal zonation at the Ægir Ridge, a canyon-like structure in the deep Norwegian Sea
title_fullStr Habitat variability and faunal zonation at the Ægir Ridge, a canyon-like structure in the deep Norwegian Sea
title_full_unstemmed Habitat variability and faunal zonation at the Ægir Ridge, a canyon-like structure in the deep Norwegian Sea
title_sort habitat variability and faunal zonation at the ægir ridge, a canyon-like structure in the deep norwegian sea
publisher PeerJ Inc.
publishDate 2022
url http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9206436/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35726260
https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.13394
geographic Arctic
Norwegian Sea
geographic_facet Arctic
Norwegian Sea
genre Arctic
Iceland
Nordic Seas
Norwegian Sea
genre_facet Arctic
Iceland
Nordic Seas
Norwegian Sea
op_source PeerJ
op_relation http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9206436/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35726260
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.13394
op_rights ©2022 Brix et al.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
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